James Brian Mark Purefoy (born June 3 1964) is an
English
actor.
Early life and work
Purefoy
was born in Taunton
, Somerset
.
He was a
boarder at Sherborne
School
which he left with only one O-level. Later he went to night school and
got 11 more, then took his
A-levels. He then studied acting at the
British drama school the
Central School of Speech and
Drama, while selling, with difficulty, copies of the
Socialist Worker in his
spare time.
Career
Purefoy's
early professional roles included Romeo in Romeo and Juliet in Leatherhead
, Walter in Mary Morgan at the Riverside
Studios
and Alan Strang in Equus on tour.
The RSC and other stage work
Purefoy subsequently joined the
Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in
1988 and appeared in
The Constant Couple,
Macbeth,
The
Tempest,
The Man
Who Came to Dinner (Gene Saks, Barbican) and
King Lear as Edgar.
Elsewhere,
he has also appeared as Laertes in Hamlet at the Bristol Old Vic
(1991) Brian in William
Gaminara's Back Up the Hearse and Let them Sniff the
Flowers at the Hampstead Theatre
(1992), Roland Maule in Noel
Coward's Present
Laughter at the Globe Theatre
(1993), Biff in Death of a Salesman, alongside
Ken Stott and Jude
Law, at the West Yorkshire Playhouse
(1994), Tony in The
Servant at the Birmingham Rep
(1995). He returned to the RSC for
Simon Callow's stage adaptation of the film
classic,
Les enfants du
paradis at the
Barbican.
He also
played Hugh de Morville in Paul Corcoran's Four Nights in
Knaresborough at the Tricycle
Theatre, (1999) and Loveless in Trevor
Nunn's production of The
Relapse at the National Theatre
in 2001.
Film and television
His appearances in films and television have predominated. He
played James McCarthy, a young man accused of murdering his father,
in "
The Boscombe Valley
Mystery," in Granada's
The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
One of his notable roles was as Nicholas Jenkins in the eight-part
miniseries
A Dance to
the Music of Time for
Channel 4
in 1997. He played
Edward, the
Black Prince in the film
A
Knight's Tale and Rawdon Crawley in Vanity Fair with Reese
Witherspoon.
He has played major roles in several television costume dramas,
including
Sharpe's
Sword,
The
Tenant of Wildfell Hall,
The Prince and the Pauper,
The Mayor of
Casterbridge,
Blackbeard:
Terror at Sea,
Beau Brummell: This Charming
Man and
Rome.
In 2007, he played an important, yet supporting role on a TV
modernized adaptation of
Frankenstein.
Rome
He played
Mark
Antony in the
HBO/
BBC original
television
series,
Rome. His full
frontal nudity in
episode four
of the series caused a sensation among the show's viewers. At the
time there were rumours that at least one nude body in the show had
been digitally enhanced. When his Wikipedia entry, which at that
time referred to the rumours, was brought up in an interview with
Alastair McKay, published in the January 2007 issue of
Out magazine, Purefoy said, "I won't
say whose it was, but there was a penis in the series that may have
been slightly enhanced. But it wasn't mine. Mine's all mine, I'm
afraid."
The Philanthropist
He stars as Teddy Rist in the summer television series,
The
Philanthropist, which aired on NBC beginning on June,
2009. His character is a billionaire playboy who decides to use his
wealth and power to
help others in
need.
Lost roles
Purefoy was attached to star in the
2005 film
V for Vendetta, but dropped out
and was replaced by
Hugo Weaving. (Both
Purefoy and Weaving starred in the 1998 gay British comedy,
Bedrooms and
Hallways.) It was later revealed that Hugo Weaving had
been originally first choice for the film, but was involved in the
Australian film
Eucalyptus. Later, production of
Eucalyptus had been halted, freeing up Weaving, and
Purefoy had willingly left
V for Vendetta because the
Guy Fawkes mask made him extremely
uncomfortable.
Purefoy was
screen tested for the role
of
James Bond in 1995 for
Goldeneye, but ultimately lost the role to
Pierce Brosnan. Throughout 2004 and
2005 Purefoy's name was rumoured as a possible candidate to replace
Brosnan as agent 007 in future James Bond films. Rumors and
speculation suggested that Purefoy's departing of
V for
Vendetta was due to an opportunity to play James Bond in the
2006 film
Casino
Royale. However, this news was proven false when
Daniel Craig was announced as the new James
Bond. In the commentary track of the
A Knight's Tale special edition
DVD, director
Brian
Helgeland stated his opinion that Purefoy would be the perfect
choice to play the "next"
James Bond,
well before Purefoy was being considered for the
Casino
Royale role.
In March 2007, Celtic Films indicated on their website that they
have a series of Flashman TV films in development, based on the
popular fictional series of novels of the same name by
George Macdonald Fraser. Picture
Palace Productions announced they were developing
Flashman at the Charge, (the
fourth novel in the series of twelve), in conjunction with Celtic
Films and that the script was prepared by
George Macdonald Fraser himself.
Both companies took an extensive role in developing
Bernard Cornwell's
Sharpe TV series. Purefoy was
rumoured to have provisionally accepted an offer made to play the
titular role of Harry Flashman.
Producer
William J. MacDonald announced that James Purefoy
would play
Simon Templar in a new TV
series of
The Saint.
The new series was scheduled to start shooting in Berlin and
Australia in April 2008. However, production ultimately did not
occur and in August Purefoy was reported as negotiating with
NBC to star in another series ,
The
Philanthropist.
Personal life
Purefoy had an eleven-year relationship with actress
Fay Ripley, after the two met at Brooklands
Technical College in Weybridge, Surrey. Afterwards, Purefoy had a
relationship with actress
Holly Aird from
1996 to 2002. They had a son together, Joseph, who was born in
1997.
Filmography
References
- http://www.filmreference.com/film/31/James-Purefoy.html Film
Reference.com.
- "When in Rome..." interview with Hannah Pool.
The
Guardian. 6 January 2007.
- McKay, Alastair. All
Hail James Purefoy. Out.com.
- Grossman, Lev. "The Mad Man In The Mask". Time, 12
March 2006.
- Morris, Clint. McMahon still in the running for 007.
MovieHole.com. 10 June 2005.
- "James Purefoy to play Simon Templar in The
Saint", The Saint Club. 5 December 2007.
- The Hollywood Reporter: "
James Purefoy circles NBC series, July 21,
2008. Accessed August 5, 2008
External links
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