Noel Purcell (actor)

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

Purcell was born in Dublin and was educated at Synge Street Christian Brothers School. He began his showbusiness career at the age of 12 in Dublin's Gaiety Theatre when he played the hind legs of a donkey. Later he toured Ireland in a vaudeville act with Jimmy O'Dea.[1]

Purcell graced many a film and TV show with variations of his standard character, the bearded, boozy son of the Auld Sod. Stage-trained in the classics in Dublin, Purcell moved into films in 1934.

His days of prominence, which began with Captain Boycott (1947) and lasted until the 1970's, saw Purcell cast as the elderly sailor whose death marooned the lovers-to-be in the first sound film version of The Blue Lagoon (1949). Purcell was dominant among Captain Ahab's crew in Moby Dick (1956) and highly visible as a gameskeeper in The List of Adrian Messenger (1963), both 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). 1962 was a good year for the hirsute hibernian with a sterling performance as the lusty William McCoy in Lewis Milestone's Mutiny on the Bounty. One of Purcell's best-remembered appearances of the 1960s was as 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 turned in a rare and powerful performance in his best part to date as the caring Rabbi in the children's musical drama The Flight of The Doves. Shot in a fictional synagogue in Dublin's now Temple bar area. Purcell is immense as the bearded holy man who assists in the escape of the tragic brother and sister Finn and Derval Dove.

Purcell also gained some recognition as a singer. Shortly after World War 2, 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, despite being indelibly associated with Purcell in his later years, the recording was by no means 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.

Contents

[edit] Filmography

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Irish Times, "Noel Purcell dies in Dublin aged 84", March 4, 1985
  2. ^ The Irish Times, "Noel Purcell - 81 and still performing", (p.5), December 24, 1981
  3. ^ The Irish Times, "Well deserved honour for Potter and Purcell", July 5, 1984

[edit] See also

[edit] External links