About James Marsden

James Paul Marsden (born September 18, 1973 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, U.S.) is an American actor, singer and former Versace model. He is best known for playing the superhero Cyclops in the three X-Men films and for his roles in other commercially successful films such as Hop, Superman Returns, Hairspray, Enchanted, The Box, and 27 Dresses. Marsden got his first job in 1993 on a series of episodes of The Nanny as Eddie, Margaret Sheffield's boyfriend. In 2007, Marsden played Corny Collins in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical based on the 1988 John Waters movie Hairspray alongside Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Nikki Blonsky, Amanda Bynes, Queen Latifah and John Travolta. There he also made his musical debut by singing two of the film's songs, "The Nicest Kids In Town" and "(It's) Hairspray." Both "Hairspray" and the film's soundtrack were critically acclaimed. The soundtrack has sold over 1,200,000 copies to date in the United States, and has been certified Platinum by the RIAA. His next role was in the Disney hybrid animated/live action film Enchanted, playing Prince Edward with co-stars Amy Adams, Susan Sarandon, Idina Menzel, Timothy Spall and Patrick Dempsey. He sang one song as a duet with Amy Adams at the beginning of the film and a duet with Idina Menzel that was cut from the film.