James Purefoy

James Brian Mark Purefoy (born 3 June 1964) is an English actor. He played Marc Antony in the HBO series Rome, college professor turned serial killer Joe Carroll in the series The Following, and Solomon Kane in the film of the same name. In February 2018 he starred as Laurens Bancroft in Altered Carbon, a Netflix original series.

He was born in Somerset and attended Sherborne School before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama. His appearances in stage plays and a variety of television roles in the UK and USA have grown since the 1980s.

Early life

Purefoy was born in Taunton, Somerset, the eldest son of Anthony Chetwynd and Shirley (née Taylor) Purefoy. The Purefoy family were landed gentry, of Shalstone, Buckinghamshire; the family name passed in the female line through Anthony Chetwynd Purefoy’s mother, Mary Lilias Geraldine, daughter of Admiral Richard Purefoy (who had changed his surname from Fitzgerald as his mother was the heir and niece of the politician George Purefoy-Jervoise, head of the family); she married Rev. Brian Mews, vicar of Tewkesbury, who changed his name to Purefoy.

Purefoy boarded at Sherborne School, which he left with only one O-level. He later went to night school and received 11 more O-levels, before taking his A-levels at Brooklands College in Weybridge. He worked as a porter at Yeovil District Hospital before studying acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Career

Stage work

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. 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 Noël 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 in Leeds (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.

Between March and June 2011 he starred as Peter in Trevor Nunn’s production of Flare Path at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, alongside Sheridan Smith and Sienna Miller, as part of the playwright Terence Rattigan’s centenary year celebrations.

He appeared as part of the ensemble cast of the 2019 West and Middle Chinnock Christmas Show, as well as singing several sea shanties from Fisherman’s Friends.

Film and television

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 Bond in future films. He played James McCarthy, a young man accused of murdering his father, in “The Boscombe Valley Mystery,” in Granada’s The Case-Book 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, Rawdon Crawley in Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon and Tom Bertram in the 1999 production of Mansfield Park.

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, The Tide of Life, Camelot and Rome.

He was originally the actor for V in the 2006 Film V for Vendetta but had creative differences with the production team and left the film six weeks into filming. Parts of the film contain (dubbed) scenes of Purefoy. Speculation suggested that his departure was due to an opportunity to play James Bond in the 2006 film Casino Royale.

He played Mark Antony in the HBO/BBC original television series, Rome. 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.”

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 Berlinand 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.

He starred 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.

In 2013, The Following debuted, starring Purefoy as the lead antagonist of the series. He portrays Joe Carroll, a former professor who becomes a serial killer and leads a cult of followers, all whom help create Carroll’s “story”.

It was announced in June 2014 that Purefoy would join the cast of the film High-Rise with Tom Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons. Later in 2014, Purefoy co-starred in the Formula 1-themed music video for David Guetta’s song “Dangerous”.

In February 2019, Hybrid (who provided the score to Interlude in Prague) released a short film to accompany their single “Hold Your Breath” from the album Light of the Fearless. The film starred Purefoy as the brooding ‘Mr Black’.

Personal life

Purefoy has a son, Joseph (born 1997), with the actress Holly Aird. He also has a daughter, Rose (born 2012) and another two sons, Ned and Kit, (born 2017) with documentary director and producer Jessica Adams. He married Adams in Somerset in July 2014.

Purefoy is a supporter of both Yeovil Town and Manchester United.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1995	Feast of July	Jedd Wainwright
1997	Jilting Joe	Joe
1998	Bedrooms and Hallways	Brendan
1999	Mansfield Park	Tom Bertram
	Women Talking Dirty	Daniel
2000	Lighthouse	Richard Spader
	Maybe Baby	Carl Phipps
	The Wedding Tackle	Hal
2001	Tomorrow	Andrew Spender
	A Knight’s Tale	Edward, the Black Prince of Wales / Sir Thomas Colville
2002	Resident Evil	Spence Parks
2003	Photo Finish	James	Jury Award for Best Actor
2004	George and the Dragon	George
	Blessed	Craig Howard
	Vanity Fair	Colonel Rawdon Crawley
2005	V for Vendetta	V	Uncredited; Left six weeks into filming; Few opening scenes of a masked V are of James Purefoy but are dubbed by Hugo Weaving
2006	Goose on the Loose	Kenneth Donnelly
2008	Lena: The Bride of Ice	Dr Harper
2010	Solomon Kane	Solomon Kane
2011	Ironclad	Marshall
2012	John Carter	Kantos Kan
2013	Wicked Blood	Wild Bill
2015	Momentum	Mr Washington
	High-Rise	Pangbourne
2016	Equity	Michael Connor
2017	Churchill	King George VI
	Interlude in Prague	Baron Saloka
2019	Fisherman’s Friends	Jim

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1990	Coasting	Mike Baker
1991	Sherlock Holmes	James McCarthy	Episode: “The Boscombe Valley Mystery”
	Boon	Alan Bridges	Episode: “Houseguests”
1992	Bye Bye Baby		Television film
	The Cloning of Joanna May	Oliver	Television film
	Angels	Victor
1993	Calling the Shots	Brian Summers	Television film
	Rides	Julian	4 episodes
	Crime Story	Darius Guppy	Episode: “The Prince”
1995	Tears Before Bedtime	Jimmy Turner
	Sharpe’s Sword	Captain Jack Spears	Television film
1996	The Tide of Life	Nick Stuart	Television miniseries
	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall	Mr. Lawrence	Television miniseries
	The Prince and the Pauper	Miles Hendon
1997	Have Your Cake and Eat It	Ben	Television miniseries
	Bright Hair	David Miles	Television film
	A Dance to the Music of Time	Nicholas Jenkins	Television miniseries
2000	Don Quixote	Sansón Carrasco	Television film
	Metropolis	Nathan	Miniseries
2003	The Mayor of Casterbridge	Donald Farfrae	Television film
2005	Blackbeard	Edward Teach / Blackbeard	Television film
2005–07	Rome	Mark Antony	Lead role
2006	Beau Brummell: This Charming Man	Beau Brummell	Television film
2007	Manchild	Joe	Television film
	Frankenstein	Dr. Henry Clerval	Television film
2008–10	The Summit	Thom Lightstone	Miniseries
2009	Diamonds	Lucas Denmont	Television film
	The Philanthropist	Teddy Rist
2011	Camelot	King Lot	Episodes: “Homecoming”, “The Sword and the Crown”, “Lady of the Lake”
	Injustice	William Travers	Miniseries
	Rev.	Richard	Episode: “#2.6”
	Revenge	Dominik Wright	Episodes: “Doubt”, “Justice”
2012	The Hollow Crown	Thomas Mowbray	Episode: “Richard II”
	Episodes	Rob	4 episodes
2013–15	The Following	Joe Carroll	30 episodes
2016–18	Hap and Leonard	Hap Collins
2016	Roots	John Waller	Miniseries
2016–18	Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia	Kanjigar the Courageous (voice)
2018	Altered Carbon	Laurens Bancroft	10 episodes
2019–present	Sex Education	Remi Milburn	5 episodes
2019	3Below: Tales of Arcadia	Kanjigar the Courageous (voice)	2 episodes
2020	Pennyworth	Captain Gulliver Troy
2020	El Candidato	Wayne Addison	10 episodes
2021	A Discovery of Witches	Philippe de Clermont

Radio

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002	Afternoon Play: The Tears of War	Bevil Quiller-Couch	BBC Radio 4
2014	Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?	Rick Deckard	BBC Radio 4
2016	Le Cid	Don Rodrigue	BBC Radio 3
2017	The Scarlet Pimpernel	Sir Percy Blakeney	BBC Radio 4