Edmund Purdom

Edmund Purdom
from The Student Prince (1954)
Born	Edmund Anthony Cutlar Purdom December 19, 1924(1924-12-19) Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, UK
Died	January 1, 2009 (aged 84) Rome, Italy

Edmund Anthony Cutlar Purdom (19 December 1924 – 1 January 2009) was an Italian-based British actor and film director.

Early life

Purdom was born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England and educated by the Jesuits at St Ignatius' College and by the Benedictines at Downside School. He began his acting career in 1945 on the stage, appearing in productions which included Romeo and Juliet and Molière's The Imaginary Invalid.

Career

In 1951-52, he appeared in small roles with the Laurence Olivier/Vivien Leigh company on Broadway in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra when his good looks brought him to the attention of Hollywood. His appearance in small roles in Titanic and Julius Caesar led to his being cast in the leading role opposite Ann Blyth in the MGM musical The Student Prince in 1954, a part originally intended for Mario Lanza who had a disagreement with the director Curtis Bernhardt over the way a song was to be sung. Purdom lip-synched to Lanza's singing voice.

His best-remembered role was as the title character in The Egyptian, 20th Century-Fox's most lavish production of 1954 for which Marlon Brando had originally been cast. In the same year, he appeared in another MGM musical, Athena, opposite his future wife Linda Christian, Jane Powell and Debbie Reynolds. He then played the title role in the biblical epic The Prodigal, MGM's most lavish production of 1955. He partnered with Ann Blyth again in The King's Thief (1955). After that, his career as a major film star ran out of steam, with the exception of some rare cameo appearances, such as The Yellow Rolls-Royce in 1964.

Italy

Purdom relocated to Rome, Italy, where he first played parts in "sword and sandal" epics and lived there for the rest of his life. He continued to work extensively in Italian B-movies, on television and as a voice dubbing actor for many years (dubbing lines from Italian to English). In 1984, he directed his first and only film, Don't Open 'Til Christmas. He also narrated a popular short documentary on the life of Padre Pio.

Personal life

He was married four times and divorced three times: his first three wives, all divorced, were Anita Philips (or Phillips), the mother of his children; actress Linda Christian in 1962, ex-wife of Tyrone Power; and Alicia Darr, of Polish-Jewish extraction^{[citation needed]}. In 2000 he married his fourth wife, Vivienne Purdom. He died from heart failure on 1 January 2009, in Rome. His daughter Lilan Purdom is a journalist with the French television channel TF1^[1].

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Edmund Purdom

• Edmund Purdom at the Internet Movie Database
• Bergan, Ronald (5 January 2009). "Edmund Purdom: British character actor famed for his roles in The Student Prince and The Egyptian". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jan/05/edward-purdom-obituary. Retrieved 2 June 2009.