James Brian Mark Purefoy (born June 3, 1964 in Taunton, Somerset, England) is an English actor.
He is best known for his roles as Mark Antony in the semi-historical drama series Rome and Solomon Kane in the eponymous movie.
He is mostly known for playing smug and slimy villainous characters, occasionally tapping into a more sadistic and sinister archetype, although he's had some heroic roles, such as Sir Thomas Colville in A Knight's Tale.
Selected filmography:
- Sharpe (Sharpe's Sword) as Captain Jack Spears (1995)
- Lighthouse as Richard Spader (1999)
- A Knight's Tale as Sir Thomas Colville/Edward, the Black Prince (2001)
- Resident Evil (2002) as Spence Parks (2002)
- George and the Dragon as George (2004)
- Rome as Mark Antony (2005-2007)
- The Philanthropist as Teddy Rist (2009)
- Solomon Kane as Solomon Kane (2010)
- Camelot as King Lot (2011)
- John Carter as Kantos Kan (2012)
- The Hollow Crown as Thomas Mobwray (2012)
- The Following as Joe Carroll (2013-2015)
- Hap and Leonard as Hap Collins (2016-2018)
- Churchill as King George VI (2017)
- Altered Carbon as Laurens Bancroft (2018)
- Tales of Arcadia as Kanjigar the Courageous (voice) (2016-2019)
- Fisherman's Friends as Jim (2019)
- Sex Education as Remi Milburn (2019-)
- Pennyworth as Gulliver Troy (2020-2022)
- Marie Antoinette as King Louis XV of France (2022)
Tropes associated with him:
- Celebrity Resemblance: To Hugh Jackman, to the point that sometimes they're confused for each other.
- Fake American: He often portrays American characters with a rather convincing accent, such as Hap Collins and Spence Parks.
- Large Ham: He can be very theatrical when he needs to be, especially when his characters go into villainous cackling bouts. Nicely averted with his very subtle performance as George VI in Churchill.
- Mr. Fanservice: He's not afraid to show his body, even being bold enough to feature Male Frontal Nudity in some of his performances.
- What Could Have Been: He was cast as V in V for Vendetta, but dropped out six weeks into the filming. He had shot several scenes as the character, but he was wearing a mask and a cloak, so his material was included in the film, with Hugo Weaving dubbing over Purefoy's performance and filming the rest of the scenes.
