Samwise Gamgee ~ Sean Astin.

     The loyal Sam Gamgee is the gardener for the Baggins family and Frodo's best friend.  He has made a promise to Gandalf that he will look after Frodo on their journey at any cost.  The character was named after Dr. Samuel Gamgee, a local hero of Birmingham who was the inventor of the Gamgee medical Tissue.  The name "Samwise" is Old English for "half-wise" to describe Sam's innocence at the beginning of the story.  On his character, Sam, Astin says, "He is a gardener and he's loyal and honest, and sometimes gets scared."

     After learning from his agent that he got the role of Sam, "I spun my car around and without even letting her finish the sentence, I went straight to Barnes & Noble bookshop, got a copy and started reading!  Little did I know, that there would be this whole world for me to become immersed in: both imaginatively, in reading the book, and then physically, while trying to bring that book to life in the films."  He gained 30 lbs. for the role.

     "I just wanted to allow whatever essence of goodness there is within me to come forth and to inhabit the role of Sam, because that's what he is: he's goodness, loyalty, decency;  that I think, is his function in the books."  While filming the scene where Sam rushes through the water after Frodo, a piece of glass impaled Sean's foot, which bled so much he had to be airlifted to a hospital.

     "Peter didn't want him to be a Hollywood character, he wanted him to be real;  I wanted to focus on Sam's heroic and ennobling qualities.  Peter liked the element of comic-relief offered by the hobbits, but I was conscious of not wanting to go too far in that direction and so reduce the credibility of the heroism which they display at various times throughout the story."

     The son of actors Patty Duke and John Astin, Sean was born on February 25, 1971 in Santa Monica, California.  He has a B.A. in both History and English, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Patrons Association and the Arts Council, along with being a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and is a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army.

     At age 13, Sean made his feature film debut in The Goonies, but has probably been best known for his lead role in Rudy.  He not only acts, but directs, produces and writes as well.  Other film credits include Bulworth, Courage Under Fire, Encino Man, Like Father Like Son, War of the Roses, and White Water Summer.  He resides in Los Angeles with his wife Christine and daughters Alexandra (who appears in The Return of the King) and Elizabeth.

     "Most actors count on having the script in advance so that they can prepare but much of the time on The Lord of the Rings we had no such luxury, simply because Peter, Fran and Philippa were engaged in the awesome task of assimiliating the literature of Middle-earth and building these three movies.  The script went through many revisions and changes as we filmed, but rather than view that as a bad thing, we saw it as an opportunity... They counted on us to know the people we were playing and empowered us to be advocates of our characters during what was to be a tumultuous shoot."

     Sean sustained two injuries during the shoot.  In addition to impaling his foot on a piece of glass chasing after Frodo's boat, he also had a wooden loom fall on him on the Rivendell set which knocked him unconscious.  Filming was re-scheduled around his foot injury (as he required many stitches) by shooting scenes at the Black Gate of the Morannon the next day where the actors could either sit or crawl on their knees.  

     "Just when you thought it couldn't get any more difficult for the little hobbits trekking across the vast plains and deserts and volcanic regions of Middle-earth, it gets a little worse for them."  ~Sean Astin.

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