Q: Passage: James Wesley Marsters (born August 20, 1962) is an American actor and musician. Marsters first came to the attention of the general public playing the popular character Spike, a platinum-blond English vampire in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel, from 1997 to 2004. Since then, he has gone on to play other science fiction roles, such as the alien supervillain Brainiac on the Superman-inspired series Smallville, the omnisexual time traveller Captain John Hart in British science-fiction show Torchwood, and terrorist Barnabas Greeley in Syfy's Caprica. Marsters appeared in a supporting role in the 2007 movie P.S. I Love You. He appeared as a recurring character in the first season of the revival of Hawaii Five-0.

Question: Based on this passage, who played spike in buffy the vampire slayer? Let's give stream of consciousness first:
The relevant information is: Marsters first came to the attention of the general public playing the popular character Spike, a platinum-blond English vampire in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off series, Angel, from 1997 to 2004. Therefore, the final answer is James Wesley Marsters.