Edmund Purdom

Acting

Edmund Purdom

Born 1924-12-20 · Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Edmund Anthony Cutlar Purdom (19 December 1924 – 1 January 2009) was an English actor, voice artist, and director. He worked first on stage in Britain, performing various works by Shakespeare, then later in America on Broadway, until making his way to Hollywood, and eventually spent the remainder of his life appearing in Italian cinema. He is perhaps best known for his starring role in 1954's historical epic The Egyptian. By taking over important roles exited by Mario Lanza and Marlon Brando, Purdom was known by the mid-1950s as "The Replacement Star". Between the 1970s and 90s, he was a regular in European genre cinema, working with directors like Juan Piquer Simón, Joe D'Amato, Sergio Martino, Ruggero Deodato.

Acting credits

Julius Caesar poster
7.1

The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but both have sorely underestimated Mark Antony.

Julius Caesar

1953

The Diary of Anne Frank poster
7.2

The true, harrowing story of a young Jewish girl who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

The Diary of Anne Frank

1959

Titanic poster
6.6

Unhappily married, Julia Sturges decides to go to America with her two children on the Titanic. Her husband, Richard also arranges passage on the luxury liner so as to have custody of their two children. All this fades to insignificance once the ship hits an iceberg.

Titanic

1953

The Egyptian poster
6.5

In eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, Sinuhe, a poor orphan, becomes a brilliant physician and with his friend Horemheb is appointed to the service of the new Pharoah. Sinuhe's personal triumphs and tragedies are played against the larger canvas of the turbulent events of the 18th dynasty. As Sinuhe is drawn into court intrigues he learns the answers to the questions he has sought since his birth.

The Egyptian

1954

Ator, the Fighting Eagle poster
4.0

The son of Torren learns of his heritage, goes to avenge the deaths of his fellow villagers, and rescue his sister/love interest from the evil Dakkar and his spider cult.

Ator, the Fighting Eagle

1982

The Scarlet and the Black poster
7.0

Fr. Hugh O'Flaherty is a Vatican official in 1943-45 who has been hiding downed pilots, escaped prisoners of war, and Italian resistance families. His activities become so large that the Nazis decide to assassinate him the next time he leaves the Vatican.

The Scarlet and the Black

1983

Lafayette poster
5.6

The story of Lafayette, the 19 year old pacifist who takes the side of the Colonials during the American war of Independence.

Lafayette

1962

Pieces poster
5.9

A frustrated Boston detective searches for the maniac responsible for mutilating a number of university coeds.

Pieces

1982

Wages of Sin poster
6.0

Documentary that analyzes sexuality during it's so-called "revolution", the late sixties. The film shows some sexual "oddities" brought on by the fall of sexual taboos: a German woman who founded an billion dollar industry by selling erotic material; young and beautiful girls who are rented by large complexes to entertain and "persuade" customers; women young and old going to school to learn the art of awakening the interest of their husbands; couples in unscrupulous act as models to abstract painters; single women looking for a mate for the weekend, taking advantage of the "pink train" set up by the German Federal Railways.

Wages of Sin

1969

Absurd poster
5.5

A priest-doctor chasing a man with supernatural regenerative abilities, who has recently escaped from a medical lab, reaches a small town where the mutant goes on a killing spree.

Absurd

1981

Blackie the Pirate poster
5.8

Rivaling Pirates and Spanish gold are the ingredients for this story. Blackie the pirate is the one who first hears from this shipment of gold when he encounters "Don" Pedro. He thinks of a plan to find this ship and its gold. His counter player is the vice roy of the Spanish kolony. When they visit one of the pirate settlements, they find three other pirate captains over there. One of them sells goods and prisoners from his latest capture. Don Pedro recognizes the wife of the vice roy, and Blackie buys her. However, one of the pirate captains, Skull, knows also who she is, and tries to make a deal. Blackie refuses, and Skull makes a deal with the other two pirate captains to plot against Blackie.

Blackie the Pirate

1971

The Yellow Rolls-Royce poster
6.1

One Rolls-Royce belongs to three vastly different owners, starting with Lord Charles, who buys the car for his wife as an anniversary present. The next owner is Paolo Maltese, a mafioso who purchases the car during a trip to Italy and leaves it with his girlfriend while he returns to Chicago. Finally, the car is owned by American widow Gerda, who joins the Yugoslavian resistance against the invading Nazis.

The Yellow Rolls-Royce

1964

Athena poster
5.8

A stuffy young lawyer's outlook on life drastically changes when he meets a perky health food enthusiast and her wacky family.

Athena

1954

The Rift poster
4.8

An experimental submarine with a very experienced crew, the "Siren II" is sent to find out what happened to the "Siren I" after it mysteriously disappeared in a submarine rift. Things go awry when they begin to find things that shouldn't be there...

The Rift

1990

Deep Thoughts poster
3.5

An inventive Euro sex film, set in Paris and Rome.

Deep Thoughts

1980

Rulers of the City poster
6.4

Tony, a mob loan collector, is dissatisfied with his station in life. Though he dreams of one day being rich, he is stuck with the dead-end job of beating up borrowers who fall behind in their payments. After meeting up with Napoli, another mob enforcer who's just been fired from his job, the two hatch a plan. Together, they will con mob boss Manzari out of a fortune, after which they can retire and live in luxury. Manzari, however, is not about to let them go so easily.

Rulers of the City

1976

The Fifth Cord poster
6.6

A journalist finds himself on the trail of a murderer who's been targeting people around him, while the police are considering him a suspect in their investigation.

The Fifth Cord

1971

The Loves of Salammbo poster
4.8

During the 3rd century B.C. a horde of barbarians are hired by the Phoenian city of Carthage to fight against the Roman empire, but when the city's ruler is unable to fulfill the promised payment made to the mercenaries, they attack the African settlement, where Salammbô --the king's daughter and high priestess of goddess Tanit- tries to settle the matter when the Barbarian leader who has fallen for her steals the sacred veil of Carthage from the temple, without taking into account the evil schemes of a powerful member of the council of wise men.

The Loves of Salammbo

1960

The Prodigal poster
4.6

A wealthy young Hebrew traveling in Damascus renounces his faith after he is seduced by an alluring pagan priestess and cheated of his fortune by the High Priest as well.

The Prodigal

1955

Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile poster
5.7

Chronicles the rise and fall of the woman who eventually became known as Queen Nefertiti.

Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile

1961

The New Godfathers poster
6.9

A revolution in Iran halts a heroin shipment, but an alliance of crime families is set on getting it to the US. They decide to run the drug through an unsuspecting network of good-natured, local smugglers in Naples, while an international anti-narcotics agent rushes to shut their operation down. Betrayals and divided loyalties lead to a final, bloody confrontation in America.

The New Godfathers

1979

Witchcraft '70 poster
5.3

Witness devilish rituals from around the globe. Satanism! Voodoo! Majicks Black and White! Shocking Truths, etc.!

Witchcraft '70

1969

The King's Thief poster
6.2

An ex-soldier turned highwayman uncovers a plot to take control of England from King Charles II.

The King's Thief

1955

The Queer ... The Erotic poster
10.0

The documentary shows in succession a ritual of male initiation in an African tribe, a lesson in sexual education in an European country; a travelling through the rooms of a museum of erotism in Germany, the window shopping of prostitutes in Amsterdams red district, a public bath for both sexes in an unhinibited Scandinavian country, the headquarters of an association that is against keeping ones virginity, a marriage ceremony of two homosexuals, and the effects of drugs on addict people.

The Queer ... The Erotic

1969

Behind the camera