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| Birth Name(s) : James Purefoy |
Date of Birth: N/A |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
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| Profession:
Actor |
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Full James Purefoy Biography
Purefoy was born into a "upper-middle class family" 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 one of Britain's top drama schools, the Central School of Speech and Drama, while selling, with difficulty, copies of the Socialist Worker in his spare time. His 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.
He 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.
Purefoy was attached to star in the 2005 film V for Vendetta, but 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 by many news outlets 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 confirmed to be false when Daniel Craig was announced as the new James Bond.
Interestingly, 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.
Purefoy has a son, Joseph (born in 1997), with actress Holly Aird, from whom he separated in 2002. He dated Gwyneth Paltrow for a brief time in 2002 and has also dated Coyote Ugly star Piper Perabo and Cold Feet star Fay Ripley, with whom he spent 11 years. |
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User James Purefoy Biographies
Biography by pokerface29
James Purefoy was born and brought up in Somerset. After leaving school at the age of sixteen he took a succession of different jobs, including working on a pig farm and as a porter at Yeovil District Hospital, before travelling and working extensively throughout Europe. At eighteen James returned to college to take his A-Levels, one of which was Drama. It was there that he realised that this was something he felt inspired by and so applied for and was accepted onto the acting course at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Whilst playing the title role in Henry V in the first term of his final year at Central he was seen by a casting director from the RSC and invited to join the company immediately in Stratford. Although initially asked only to play Ferdinand in Nick Hytner's production of The Tempest he left the RSC two years later having performed in eight productions and been directed by the likes of Adrian Noble, Roger Michell and Gene Saks playing, amongst other, Edgar in King Lear and Malcolm in Macbeth. Over the next six years he divided his time between theatre and television. In the theatre he worked with Katie Mitchell on Women of Troy at the Gate; Matthew Warchus, Ken Stott and Jude Law on Death of a Salesman at the West Yorkshire Playhouse; Iain Glen on Hamlet at Bristol Old Vic; Bill Alexander in a critically acclaimed season at Birmingham Rep playing leading parts in The Servant, The Way of the World and Macbeth and with Simon Callow, Joseph Fiennes Rupert Graves, and Helen McCrory, on Les Enfants du Paradis, again for the RSC. As well as appearing in the BBC's landmark period drama, _"Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The" (1996) (mini)_ he has always chosen to do a wide variety of parts on television, to avoid being typecast. From the psychopathic rapist in BBC1's Calling the Shots (1993) (TV) with Lynn Redgrave to the fraudster Darius Guppy in LWT's The Prince; from the urbane observer Nick Jenkins in Channel 4's "A Dance to the Music of Time" (1997) to the sad stalker in Granada's series "Metropolis" (2000), James has always managed to confound people's expectations of him. Over the last few years he has been busy making feature films, on average at the rate of three a year. Early credits include Jedd in Feast of July (1995) for Merchant Ivory, and as the bisexual Irish baker, Brendan in Rose Troche's Bedrooms and Hallways (1998). From the alcoholic roustabout Tom in Mansfield Park (1999) to the wannabee 'Bond' actor Carl Phipps in Maybe Baby (2000); the gambling, womanising Daniel in Women Talking Dirty (1999) with Helena Bonham Carter to the noble, enigmatic Prince Edward in Brian Helgeland's A Knight's Tale (2001). He has continued to surprise those who seek to pidgeon-hole him in his film career - always choosing to play parts that juxtapose strongly with the one he has just completed. Last year he returned to the theatre to play the rake Ned Loveless in Trevor Nunn's acclaimed production of 'The Relapse' at the National Theatre in London, before embarking on the biggest challenge he has yet faced - playing George in the big budget _George and the Dragon (2003)_, with, among others, Michael Clarke Duncan, Val Kilmer, Piper Perabo and Patrick Swayze. This movie will be released in the summer of 2003. He lives alone in London. |
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