Dominic Purcell

DOMINIC PURCELL

Date of Birth: February 17, 1970

Born in England, Dominic Purcell moved with his Norwegian father and Irish mother to Sydney, Australia. He dropped out of high school to take a job as a landscaper, but soon after, developed an interest in drama and studied at The Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP), followed by the Western Australian Academy of Performing arts where his classmates included his future wife Rebecca and Hugh Jackman.

Shortly after graduating in 1996, Purcell landed a leading role in the TV series series Raw FM. The show made him a star in Australia, and he soon began landing roles in American TV movies such as Moby Dick (1998) and First Daughter (1999).

Purcell made his motion picture debut in Mission: Impossible II (2000), playing Ulrich opposite Tom Cruise. The same year, he won the Green Card lottery which allowed him to work in the United States, so he and his wife and kids moved to Los Angeles, where he quickly picked up work in the motion picture Equilibrium (2002), co-starring Christian Bale.

From 2002 to 2003 Purcell played the title role in the WB TV series drama John Doe, filmed in Vancouver. When the show ended, he played Drake, the reincarnation of Dracula in the sci-fi film Blade: Trinity (2004). After a short stint on the Fox-TV drama North Shore, he landed a starring role on Fox-TV's drama series Prison Break, which quickly became a hit with critics and TV viewers alike. In it, he plays Lincoln Burrows, a wrongly convicted death row inmate whose younger brother deliberately gets himself sent to the same prison in order to break both of them out. The series won a 2006 People's Choice Award for Favorite New Television Drama.

During breaks from the show, Purcell has had time to film roles in several motion pictures, including Primeval (2007) and Level Seven (2007).

He lives with his family in Los Angeles but while Prison Break is filming, he flies to Chicago to work and comes home on weekends. In his spare time, Purcell is an avid surfer.

Filmography:

Level Seven (2007)
Town Creek (2007)
Primeval (2007)
The Gravedancers (2006)
Blade: Trinity (2004)
3-Way (2004)
Visitors (2003)
Equilibrium (2002)
Mission: Impossible II (2000)