Actor Bruce Purchase passed away at his home, according to reports. Purchase was 69 years old.
Purchase was was a founder member of Sir Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre and a regular performer with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Purchase is best-known to sci-fi audiences for his memorable performance as the villainous Captain in 1978’s four part story, “The Pirate Planet” for Doctor Who. Purchase starred opposite Tom Baker and Mary Tamm in a script by up and coming writer Douglas Adams as a half-man/half-machine pirate captain of a space ship that journey through the universe, obliterating planets for their mineral wealth. Purchase later participated in a commentary track for the DVD release of the story.
In 2003 he gave the first performance of Johnson is Leaving, John Wain’s adaptation of his 1974 biography of Dr Samuel Johnson, at The Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon.
Wain wrote the drama especially for Purchase after the two men met in Oxford and Purchase subsequently performed the play around the world.
Television credits include Killer Net, Bob Martin, The Devil’s Crown, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quiz Kids, Fall of Eagles, Diary of a Nobody, Freud, London Belongs to Me, The Secret Agent, Fight Against Slavery, Atlantis, Even Solomon, Saint Joan, The Strawberry Tree, Shades of Green, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Trilby, Much Ado About Nothing, Mission Critical, Henry IV, The First Churchills, Callan, A Horseman Riding By, Rumpole of the Bailey, Anna of the Five Towers, Kidnapped, Edward VII, Exiles, The New Avengers, Return to Treasure Island, Portrait of Katherine Mansfield, Clayhanger, I Claudius.
Films include Johnson is Leaving, Sea Change, Another Life, Richard III, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Further Adventures of Robin Hood, Casanova, Esther Queen of Persia, A Phoenix Too Frequent, Playing Away, AD, Other Halves, John Paul II, Wallenberg, Optimists of Nine Elms, Soft Beds and Hard Battles, Quatermass, Meeting with Remarkable Men, King David, Macbeth, Lionheart, Mary Queen of Scots.
Purchase’s autobiography Changing Skies was published shortly before he died and he was also an accomplished artist who exhibited in London and abroad.
He became seriously ill while touring in a production last year which also starred David Suchet.
He lived with his partner Sara Hebblethwaite.
Friends,
With a view to writing Bruce’s obituary, could Michael or anyone else put me in touch with his agent for further biographical details…..?
Also: does anyone know where to find his book, which I have not been able to find so far …. ?
Bruce’s book is published by a company called Steele Roberts – I have a copy.
steeleroberts.co.nz
We published Bruce’s book this year. It may be available via Sara in the UK, and she will know which bookshops took it. Otherwise we can post from NZ. info at steeleroberts.co.nz
l was one of bruce purchase carer from carewatch ltd. we took carer of him while he was on bed. Bruce nicknamed by me as the “general” because of his great determination to stay alife despite his pain. he was indeed a great man. who wants to encourage everyone. Bruce was a wonderful man of great magnitude and we in carewatch will miss him greatly. l learnt something special from him which was how to be determine and change the doctors report by standing up aggressively to live on.
Hi. Bruce was my mum’s partner. I think she still has some books. Please contact me if you are interested jameshebble at hotmail.com
I will always remember my time with Bruce i held the book for him whist he was was in Back to Methuselah at the RSC in the summer of 2000. His character was that of Lubin who said ” Although I am a mere child of 69, I am old enough to have lost the habit of crying for the moon”. For me the moon will be a reminder of memories of Bruce. mouse.x