Although he is most often recognized nowadays for his portrayal of one of the ‘grunts′ in Saving Private Ryan, Barry Pepper is hoping to use his newfound fame to cement himself a place in the Hollywood landscape.

Pepper was born in British Columbia, Canada, in 1970, but the family didn’t stick around for too long. The Peppers were an eccentric brood, and they had been building a ship in their backyard for years. When Barry was five years old, the ship was done and the family set sail. Christened “The Moonlighter”, the 50 ft. ship would be their home for the next five years. They navigated through the Islands of the South Pacific, using only a sextant and the stars as guides. While visiting such exotic locales as Fiji and Tahiti, Barry was educated through correspondence courses and sometimes enrolled in public schools. He grew up around Polynesian children and credits them for his love of dance, music and other expressive arts. Barry had plenty of time to practice his newfound loves too. Without television as entertainment on the ship, the family relied on games and sketch acting for fun.

When the five year cruise was over, the Peppers returned to their native Canada, where they set up shop on a small island off the West Coast near Vancouver. They built a farm on the outskirts of a small artist’s town, which was populated mainly by hippies, poets, musicians and other craftsmen. Barry enrolled in college and majored in Marketing and Graphic Design, but after getting involved with the Vancouver Actors Studio, he changed his course. Once again, he was using the stars to navigate…Pepper landed a role on Madison (think 90210 - Canadian style) and then moved on to slightly more prestigious roles south of the border. Television movies followed, most notably the mini-series Titanic, which co-starred George C. Scott. Still, Barry’s career really wasn’t taking off. He was a hard working actor, but not a star. That all changed in 1998. After a string of big screen duds, the highpoint of which was Firestorm, Pepper secured himself a role in Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan.

The film would captivate the world with its gruesome but realistic depiction of the carnage of WWII. Pepper portrayed a deeply religious sniper and played out that inherent contradiction well - quoting the bible as he calculatingly took aim on enemy after enemy. With the success of the film came sudden stardom for its cast - complete with photo spreads, interviews, and even some Oscar buzz. Pepper followed it up with a small but noteworthy role in the summer blockbuster, Enemy of the State opposite Will Smith and Gene Hackman. He will soon be seen once again with his SPR co-star Tom Hanks in the film adaptation of Stephen King’s The Green Mile.

Filmography
Knockaround Guys (2002) …. Matty Demaret
25th Hour, The (2002) …. Frank Slattery
We Were Soldiers (2002) …. Joseph Galloway
61* (2001) (TV) …. Roger Maris
… aka 61 (2001) (TV) (USA)
We All Fall Down (2000)
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 (2000) …. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler
… aka Battlefield Earth (2000) (USA: short title)
Green Mile, The (1999) …. Dean Stanton
… aka Stephen King’s The Green Mile (1999) (USA: complete title)
Into the Breach: ‘Saving Private Ryan’ (1998) (V) …. Himself
Enemy of the State (1998) …. Detective David Pratt
Saving Private Ryan (1998) …. Private Daniel Jackson
Firestorm (1998) …. Packer
Dead Silence (1997) (TV) (uncredited) …. Airport Officer
Urban Safari (1996) …. Rico
Titanic (1996) (TV) …. Assistant Marconi Operator Harold Bride
Johnny’s Girl (1995) (TV) …. Jimmy Zee
Killer Among Friends, A (1992) (TV) …. Mickey