These deaths are coming fast and furious now.
Funny how Edmund Purdom turned out have a long career dubbing other actors' voices, mostly from Italian into English when the role that made him famous (for a while) was one in which his singing was famously done by another actor, the overweight Mario Lanza who was not fired from The Student Prince until after he had recorded all the songs.
R.I.P. Edmund Purdom
NY Times
January 4, 2009
Edmund Purdom, Screen Actor, Dies at 84
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
ROME (Agence France-Presse) Edmund Purdom, the British actor who starred in the Hollywood costume pageants “The Egyptian” and “The Prodigal” in the mid-1950s, died on Thursday in Rome, where he had lived and worked since the 1960s. He was 84.
His death was announced by his family.
Mr. Purdom began his acting career in the theater on both sides of the Atlantic. He landed the lead in the MGM musical “The Student Prince” in 1954, replacing an overweight Mario Lanza , and later that year replaced Marlon Brando , who opted out of “The Egyptian.”
After settling in Rome, Mr. Purdom starred in “sword and sandal” epics and Italian B movies and then worked for many years as a voice-dubbing actor, mainly from Italian into English.
In a romantic history that included four weddings and three divorces, Mr. Purdom was best known for abruptly leaving his wife, Anita Philips, and their two children to marry the Mexican actress Linda Christian, with whom he starred in “Athena” (1954). Ms. Christian was the ex-wife of Tyrone Power.
Mr. Purdom’s survivors include his daughter with Ms. Philips, Lilan Purdom, a French television journalist.
January 4, 2009
Edmund Purdom, Screen Actor, Dies at 84
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
ROME (Agence France-Presse) Edmund Purdom, the British actor who starred in the Hollywood costume pageants “The Egyptian” and “The Prodigal” in the mid-1950s, died on Thursday in Rome, where he had lived and worked since the 1960s. He was 84.
His death was announced by his family.
Mr. Purdom began his acting career in the theater on both sides of the Atlantic. He landed the lead in the MGM musical “The Student Prince” in 1954, replacing an overweight Mario Lanza , and later that year replaced Marlon Brando , who opted out of “The Egyptian.”
After settling in Rome, Mr. Purdom starred in “sword and sandal” epics and Italian B movies and then worked for many years as a voice-dubbing actor, mainly from Italian into English.
In a romantic history that included four weddings and three divorces, Mr. Purdom was best known for abruptly leaving his wife, Anita Philips, and their two children to marry the Mexican actress Linda Christian, with whom he starred in “Athena” (1954). Ms. Christian was the ex-wife of Tyrone Power.
Mr. Purdom’s survivors include his daughter with Ms. Philips, Lilan Purdom, a French television journalist.