Noel Purcell

Noel Purcell (born December 23, 1900, Dublin — March 3, 1985, Dublin) was an Irish film and television actor.

Career

Purcell began his show business career at the age of 12 in Dublin's Gaiety Theatre. Later, he toured Ireland in a vaudeville act with Jimmy O'Dea.^[1]

Stage-trained in the classics in Dublin, Purcell moved into films in 1934. He appeared in Captain Boycott (1947) and as the elderly sailor whose death marooned the lovers-to-be in the first sound film version of The Blue Lagoon (1949). Purcell played a member of Captain Ahab's crew in Moby Dick (1956), a gameskeeper in The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), and a barman in The Mackintosh Man (1973), all films directed by John Huston.

In 1955, he was an off-and-on regular on the British filmed TV series The Buccaneers (released to American TV in 1956), and Purcell narrated a Hibernian documentary, Seven Wonders of Ireland (1959). In 1962, he portrayed the lusty William McCoy in Lewis Milestone's Mutiny on the Bounty. He played a taciturn Irish in-law to Lebanese-American entertainer Danny Thomas' character Danny Williams in a 1963 episode of The Danny Thomas Show. In 1971, he played the caring rabbi in the children's musical drama Flight of the Doves.

Purcell also gained some recognition as a singer. Shortly after World War II, songwriter Leo Maguire composed "The Dublin Saunter" for him. He performed the song live for many years and later recorded it for the Glenside label. However, the recording was not a hit. As Purcell recalled many years later, "I don't think one person in the world bought it." In 1981, he recorded a spoken word version of Pete St. John's "Dublin in the Rare Old Times".^[2]

In June 1984, Purcell was conferred with the Freedom of the City of Dublin.^[3] Nine months later, he died in his native city at the age of 84.

Filmography

• The Irish R.M. (1 episode, 1984)
• The Mackintosh Man (1973)
• The Onedin Line (1 episode, 1972)
• Flight of the Doves (1971)
• The McKenzie Break (1970)
• Never Say Die (1970) TV series
• Dixon of Dock Green (1 episode, 1969)
• Where's Jack? (1969)
• Sinful Davey (1969)
• I Spy (1 episode, 1967)
• The Violent Enemy (1967)
• Dr. Finlay's Casebook (1 episode, 1967)
• Drop Dead Darling (1966)
• The Saint (2 episodes, 1964-1966)
• Doctor in Clover (1966)
• The Avengers (1 episode, 1965)
• Lord Jim (1965)
• The Ceremony (1963)
• The DuPont Show of the Week (1 episode, 1963)
• The Running Man (1963)
• The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) (uncredited)
• Nurse on Wheels (1963)
• Make Room for Daddy (1962)
• Mutiny on the Bounty (1962)
• Three Spare Wives (1962)
• The Iron Maiden (1962)
• Johnny Nobody (1961)
• Double Bunk (1961)
• The Three Worlds of Gulliver (1960)
• Man in the Moon (1960)
• The Millionairess (1960)
• Make Mine Mink (1960)
• No Kidding (1960)
• Watch Your Stern (1960)
• Tommy the Toreador (1959)
• Ferry to Hong Kong (1959)
• Shake Hands with the Devil (1959)
• The Key (1958)
• Rooney (1958)
• Merry Andrew (1958)
• The Rising of the Moon (1957)
• Pretty Polly (1957)
• Doctor at Large (1957)
• Rockets Galore! (1957)
• The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1 episode, 1956)
• The Buccaneers (1 episode, 1956)
• Lust for Life (1956)
• Moby Dick (1956)
• Jacqueline (1956)
• Doctor at Sea (1955)
• Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Presents
• Svengali (1954)
• Mad About Men (1954)
• The Seekers (1954)
• Doctor in the House (1954) (uncredited)
• Grand National Night (1953)
• Decameron Nights (1953)
• The Pickwick Papers (1952)
• The Crimson Pirate (1952)
• Father's Doing Fine (1952)
• Encore (1951)
• Appointment with Venus (1951)
• No Resting Place (1951)
• Talk of a Million (1951)
• Saints and Sinners (1949)
• The Blue Lagoon (1949)
• Captain Boycott (1947)
• Odd Man Out (1947) (uncredited)
• Ireland's Border Line (1939)
• Knight Without Armour (1937) (uncredited)
• Jimmy Boy (1935)
• Blarney (1926)

See also

• List of people on stamps of Ireland

References

External links

• Noel Purcell at the Internet Movie Database
• Noel Purcell (actor) at Find a Grave