When shooting begins this fall on Starz’s Outlander series it will be with Sam Heughan in the lead role of ‘Jamie Fraser.’ Based on Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling seven-book series, Outlander is being brought to the small screen by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation) who’s adapting Gabaldon’s work and executive producing the series with Jim Kohlberg.
Starz is aiming for a 2014 premiere of season one.
Announcing the casting of Heughan, Moore stated: “From the very beginning, I knew the part of Jamie Fraser would be difficult to cast. I had no one in mind for the part. I knew that someone would just come into the audition and be Jamie Fraser. And that’s what Sam did.”
Added author Diana Gabaldon: “Oh. My. God. That man is a Scot to the bone and Jamie Fraser to the heart. Having seen Sam Heughan not just act, but be Jamie, I feel immensely grateful to the production team for their painstaking attention to the soul of the story and characters.”
The Plot: In Outlander, Jamie Fraser strikes up a passionate affair with Claire Randall, a married combat nurse from 1945 who is mysteriously swept back in time to 1743. Armed with sheer grit and enduring strength, he is a strapping young Scottish clan lord with a complicated past and a disarming sense of humor.
He is intelligent, principled, and, by 18th-century standards, educated and worldly, with a tenderness and compassion that stands out in contrast to his contemporaries. A natural leader of men, he has no political ambitions or desire for battlefield glories. Instead, he wishes to remove the price on his head and return to his family’s ancestral farm.
Sam Heughan Biography [Courtesy of Starz]
Sam Heughan is a graduate of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, he was a 2003 nominee for the Laurence Olivier Award for Most Promising Performance for his work in the program. Last year, he originated the role of Batman in the DC/Warner Brothers and Waterlane production of Batman Live, an international tour which opened at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles and went on to tour in South America and throughout Europe.
In 2010, he was nominated for a British Soap Award for “Villain of the Year” for his role as Scott Neilson in the BBC soap opera Doctors. He has also had roles in a range of television series including River City, Island at War, The Wild West, Midsomer Murders, and, most recently, Any Human Heart as Lieutenant McStay.
His TV movie credits include Breaking the Mould for BBC Television, A Very British Sex Scandal for Channel 4 and First Light for BBC2. He was nominated for a “Grace award” for his performance as Prince Ashton, the son of Sir Roger Moore, in A Princess for Christmas for Hallmark Channel. His film credits include the short film Small Moments, and the feature films Alexander the Great from Macedonia and Emulsion. He will also be seen in the upcoming film Heart of Lightness.
On stage, Heughan has performed at a variety of theatres in such productions as King John, Romeo and Juliet, The Vortex, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Talented Mr. Ripley and more. At the Royal Scottish Academy, Heughan starred in productions including Crime & Punishment, The Seagull, and Prometheus Bound.
