He was really, really gorgeous!
'That's not a hairstyle, it's a cry for help!'
If you like him so much, I suggest you watch "The Egyptian" which is now available on DVD and Blu-ray disc.
shareHe was also in the 80s gore flick Pieces in a very crucial role.
shareHis career really fizzled into nothingness after The Egyptian . . . you never saw much of him anywhere . . .
shareHe moved to Italy and appeared in many Italian films.
May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?
He may not have been versatile enough for a major career . . . good elocution, but not flexible enough for a major film career . . .
shareI think he was as versatile as many other actors, and more than some, who have had "bigger" careers. I think the main problem is that Hollywood misused him, putting him in overstuffed "epics" like The Egyptian and The Prodigal, or in The Student Prince, subbing for Mario Lanza -- and miming his vocals, when everyone knew who Lanza was, and his voice was credited in the film. Things like that are not helpful to one's career. If he'd been given better roles and films he could easily have succeeded. I understand he also made poor choices in which studio to go with, rejecting Fox and being dropped by Warner Bros. after signing with them; when he settled at MGM he wound up in a lot of expensive but basically vacuous productions.
I never understood why he moved to Italy, where he lived from the late 50s until his death on New Year's Day, 2009, once his Hollywood career went bust. Why not back to Britain, where he surely could have gotten film and television roles. He did do a number of English-language films while in Italy, such as The Yellow Rolls Royce, but most of his Italian output was junk. My wife actually knew his daughter in London some years ago (I think she works for French TV).
It's pretty ridiculous that Purdom didn't get screen credit for Titanic. It was common practice in those days to omit many actors' names from the credits, but his was hardly a small or incidental role.