Simon Bamford Simon is best known for playing the ‘Butterball Cenobite’ in the original 'Hellraiser' and its first sequel 'Hellbound', as well as ‘Ohnaka’ in Clive Barker's 'Nightbreed'.
However it was The Who’s 'Quadrophenia' which gave Simon his first film experience at the age of 16.
Discovered playing 'The Fool' in a London production of King Lear by film director Clive Barker, he was invited to join 'The Dog Company' where he worked with Doug Bradley (Pinhead) and Oliver Parker (Film director of 'Johnny English Reborn', 'St Trinians', 'Dad's Army', 'Dorian Gray' & Swimming with Men’).
'Hellraiser' and 'Nightbreed' followed shortly afterwards.
Simon was reunited with Clive whilst playing Derek in 'The Book of Blood' for Matador films.
He was reunited with Candyman Tony Todd whilst playing ‘Gary’ in 'Dead of the Nite', and can be heard as the voice of ‘Commander Elgin’ in the animation 'The 11th Hour - Jericho'.
In 2015 he completed four shoots: 'Arcade', 'Roots', 'The Pub Launch' and the auto-cannibalism horror short 'Hunger'.
More recently he played the ‘Witchfinder General’ in ‘The Haunting of Margam Castle’ shot in Wales, and in LA, played art gallery owner ‘Mr Peindre’ in ‘14 Ghosts’.
Outside of the horror genre, Simon played the senior consultant in the feature film 'Starfish' starring Tom Riley from 'Da Vinci's Demons' and Golden Globe winner Joanne Froggatt from 'Downton Abbey'.
In 2021 he completed production on the award winning feature film ‘You are my Sunshine’ a LGBTQ love story set across several decades.
He has worked in theatre worldwide from Kuala Lumpur to Stockholm, Ohio to Karachi.
and has become a much sought after horror convention guest with USA shows in Atlantic City, Florida, Boston, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Indianapolis and LA as well as European shows in Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium and the UK.
Simon was invited to play horror legend ‘Peter Vincent’ in the ‘Fright Night’ documentary 'You're so cool Brewster' which won ‘Best Documentary’ at the Top Indie film awards in 2017
He won ‘Best Actor’ for his portrayal of ‘Pip’ in a stage production of ‘Great Expectations’.
For the 2022 Sci-Fi movie, ‘Project Skyquake’, he won Best Ensemble at the Las Vegas Movie Awards, and was nominated for Best Supporting actor at the Tietê International Film Awards.
He was awarded the ‘Lifetime of Torment Award’ at Texas Frightmare in 2018
and Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020 at the ‘Russian International Horror Film Festival.
In 2017 Simon shot the first episode of the ‘Dark Ditties’ series ‘The Offer’, bringing to life the role of smarmy investment banker, ‘Jonathon Brook Davies’.
To date he has appeared in five of the ‘Dark Ditties Presents’ series.
All episodes are available now on Amazon & Amazon Prime in both the UK and USA.
In 2024, the long awaited Horror anthology ‘Mosaic’ is due for release.
Simon plays ‘Elliot Foley’, a Detective Inspector, trying to make sense of an increasingly brutal series of bizarre murders.
The Hungarian movie ‘Aftermath’ is also due for release this year.
Simon plays the voice of ‘Alpha’, a squad leader, in a strange, mysterious world.
He is currently in pre-production for two new films shooting in 2024.
After waking up in the middle of a forest with no memories, a young woman is targeted by mysterious strangers with a motive as unclear as her way back home.
After strange trumpet-like sounds in the sky have been reported at locations around the world, a wannabe journalist sets out to investigate with his best friend, but they soon find themselves facing an encounter with terrifying results.
An extensive look at the making of Fright Night (1985) and Fright Night Part 2 (1988) featuring exclusive interviews with cast and crew members, rare photographs, behind-the-scenes footage and more.
Based on the real story of Tom and Nicola Ray from Rutland. Their perfect life is totally ruined in a single moment after Tom had developed sepsis. While her husband was in coma, Nicola gave birth to their second child on the other side of the same hospital. Within a matter of days, sepsis would rob Tom of both his arms and legs, and left his face severely disfigured. As an ordinary man, Tom never put himself at risk — he just woke up two months later in a nightmare, a face-off quadruple amputee... This incredible story of survival shows what can be overcome when love is unconditional.
Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II is a feature length documentary uncovering the history and the making of Clive Barker's Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II films.
"The Story of Hellrasier III" offers a half-hour discussion of the overhaul involved in the making of the delayed third film in the Hellraiser franchise, in which a cult horror format was consciously transformed into a mass-market product with an eye on the teen market and a sense of disappointment from the British crew of the first two films. - Frank Harrison
On the new Arrow blu release (and on the previous Scream Factory release), this feature-length making of takes a fresh approach to most similar docs by focussing on the actors and the actors alone. New interviews with all the main cast show the tremendous amount of love all had for the project and how it was Barker's wonderful characters that drew them all in. They spend a significant amount of time with each actor exploring their respective characters, delving deep into each, detailing exactly what each wanted to bring to the film.
Based on the wraparound story penned by Clive Barker in the author's "Books of Blood" collection, the story centers on a paranormal expert who, while investigating a gruesome slaying, finds a house that is at the intersection of "highways" transporting souls to the afterlife.
Confined to a mental hospital, young Kirsty Cotton insists her supposedly dead father is stuck in hell, controlled by sadomasochistic demons after being betrayed by his evil, occult-obsessed wife, Julia. Few believe Kirsty, except the thrill-seeking Dr. Channard, who is intrigued by the young woman's lurid stories. So when Kirsty and fellow patient Tiffany head to hell for a rescue, Channard and Julia are close behind.
Hedonist Frank Cotton finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons the Cenobites, who open the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indivisible.