Lee Purcell
Lee Purcell | |
|---|---|
 Purcell in 2017 | |
| Born | Lee Jeune Williams June 15, 1947 |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Spouses | Robert Gibson
(m. 1968; div. 1972)Kenneth Gerbino
(m. 1975; div. 1981)Gary A. Lowe
(m. 1982; div. 1995)Bob Dahlquist (m. 2014) |
| Website | www |
Lee Purcell (born Lee Jeune Williams; June 15, 1947)[2] is an American actress[3] who worked primarily in the 1970s and 1980s.[4]
Early life
[edit]Purcell was born Lee Jeune Williams at the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point (North Carolina), the elder daughter of Major Frank D. Williams Jr., a highly decorated Marine Corps pilot who was killed while on active duty when she was two months old.[5] Her mother, Lee (née McKnight) Williams (1925–2014), remarried, to Donald Purcell, a U.S. Navy doctor assigned to the Marine Corps.[6] Lee Purcell has a younger sister.[7]
She graduated from Paragould High School in 1965[7] and briefly attended Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri as a dance and theatre student until she was expelled.[why?][8][9][10][11]
Career
[edit]
She moved to California in 1967[12] and studied acting. Purcell supported herself by working in commercials[11] and selling clothes at a disco.[13]
In 1969, Purcell was selected for her first feature film by Steve McQueen in his company's production of Adam at Six A.M., co-starring Michael Douglas.[14] Asked to explain why he chose Purcell from nearly 500 other available actresses, McQueen said, "It wasn't easy. We kept narrowing down the field over a period of weeks until it came to giving screen tests to six of them. All of them were good, but Lee seemed to jump right out of the screen."[15]
Her television work included roles as Billie Dove and Olivia de Havilland in two biopic TV movies: The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977)[16] and My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985).[17]
She was nominated for two Emmy Awards. In 1991, she was nominated as Outstanding Lead Actress for Long Road Home[18] and in 1994 as Outstanding Supporting Actress for Secret Sins of the Father. She was co-producer, and starred in the 1998 low-budget cable-TV movie Malaika (alternate title Tons of Trouble).[19]
Purcell's film career wound down in 1983 and she has only had five motion picture credits since, the last in 2015. She has continued to do television projects.[20]
Personal life
[edit]In December 2010 Purcell launched an interactive fashion and beauty website, BoomerBabes, geared towards Baby Boomer women. The website gained few visitors[21] and BoomerBabes stopped updating in 2014.[22]
Purcell is a member of the Church of Scientology.[23]
Filmography
[edit]Feature films
[edit]| Year | Film | Role | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Adam at Six A.M. | Jerri Jo Hopper | Robert Scheerer |
| 1972 | Dirty Little Billy | Berle | Stan Dragoti |
| Stand Up and Be Counted | Karen Hammond | Jackie Cooper | |
| Necromancy | Priscilla | Bert I. Gordon | |
| 1973 | Kid Blue | Molly Ford | James Frawley |
| 1974 | Mr. Majestyk | Wiley | Richard Fleischer |
| 1978 | Big Wednesday | Peggy Gordon | John Milius |
| Almost Summer | Christine Alexander | Martin Davidson | |
| 1980 | Stir Crazy | Susan | Sidney Poitier |
| 1982 | Airplane II: The Sequel | Mrs. Seluchi (Deleted Scene) | Ken Finkleman |
| Homework | Ms. Jackson | James Beshears | |
| 1983 | Eddie Macon's Run | Jilly Buck | Jeff Kanew |
| Valley Girl | Beth Brent | Martha Coolidge | |
| 1985 | Space Rage | Maggie | Conrad E. Palmisano |
| 1996 | Movies, Money, Murder | Lilah | Stephen Eckelberry, Arthur Webb |
| 1998 | Dizzyland | Dennis Hackin | |
| 2005 | The Unknown aka Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch | Doris Winslow | Karl Kozak |
| 2015 | Kids vs Monsters | Francine Gingerfield |
Television
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Bracken's World | Girl | |
| 1970 | Marcus Welby, M.D. | Cathy Cullen | Made a second appearance in 1972, as 'Carol Lockett' |
| Bonanza | Angie | ||
| The Young Rebels | Maggie Todd | ||
| 1972 | Medical Center | Liza | |
| 1973 | Cannon | Marian Luke | Made two additional appearances in 1975, various characters |
| Hijack | Eileen Noonan | TV movie | |
| 1974 | ABC Wide World Mystery | Donna | |
| The Rockford Files | Susan Parsons | ||
| 1975 | The Waltons | Bobby Strom | Played an aviator |
| Insight | Tracy | ||
| Barnaby Jones | Kathy Cooper | Made a second appearance in 1977, as 'Peggy Giroux' | |
| 1976 | Hawaii Five-O | Molly Taggert | Made a second appearance in 1977, same character |
| Jigsaw John | Virginia Sand | ||
| 1977 | The Amazing Howard Hughes | Billie Dove | TV movie |
| The Streets of San Francisco | Carol Revson | ||
| 1978 | Stranger in Our House | Julia Trent | TV movie (aka Summer of Fear) |
| 1979 | Murder in Music City | Samantha Hunt | TV movie (aka The Country Western Murders) |
| A Man Called Sloane | Michele Blake | ||
| 1980 | Kenny Rogers as The Gambler | Jennie Reed | TV movie |
| My Wife Next Door | Lisa Pallick | Pilot for proposed TV series | |
| The Secret War of Jackie's Girls | Casey McCann | TV movie | |
| 1981 | The Girl, the Gold Watch & Dynamite | Bonnie Lee Beaumont | TV movie and pilot for proposed TV series |
| Killing at Hell's Gate | Jane Pasco | TV movie | |
| 1982 | The Phoenix | Cindy Houghton | |
| 1985 | Magnum, P.I. | Goldie Morris | |
| Murder, She Wrote | Joanna Benson | Made four additional appearances in 1986, 1989 and 1994, various characters | |
| My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn | Olivia de Havilland | TV movie | |
| Hollywood Beat | Maggie | ||
| 1986 | Betrayed by Innocence | Sharon DeLeon | TV movie |
| 1987 | Matlock | Andrea Colter | |
| MacGyver | Shadow | ||
| 1988 | To Heal a Nation | Sandie | TV movie |
| The Incredible Hulk Returns | Dr. Maggie Shaw | TV movie | |
| Jake and the Fatman | Pamela Parker | ||
| 1989 | Simon & Simon | Colleen Huntley/Missy Taylor | |
| 1990 | Shades of LA | Alex Taylor | |
| 1991 | Long Road Home | Bessie Robertson | TV movie. Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress |
| 1994 | Secret Sins of the Father | Ann Thielman | TV movie. Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress |
| 1995 | Due South | Louise St. Laurent | Made five additional appearances in 1995 and 1996, same character |
| Dazzle | Red | TV movie | |
| The Magic of Christmas | Herself | Holiday special | |
| 1997 | Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction | Dr. Kim O'Farrell | Segment: "The Unknown Patient" |
| 1998 | Promised Land | Beth Hixon | |
| Malaika | Molly DeMornay | TV movie (aka Tons of Trouble) | |
| 2010 | Persons Unknown | Eleanor Sullivan | Mini-series. Five appearances |
| 2016 | J.L. Family Ranch | Mable Ritter | TV film |
Special projects
[edit]| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | A Woman's Guide to Firearms | Herself | Instructional video |
| Your First Gun- A Family Guide To Shooting | The mother | Instructional video | |
| 1992 | The Joke | Jane | 35mm short |
| 1997 | This World, Then the Fireworks | ADR work (additional dialogue recording) | |
| 2006 | White Picket Fence | Bonnie Durley | Super 16mm short |
References
[edit]- ^ Lee Purcell, Encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Accessed November 29, 2022.
- ^ Lee Purcell, Encyclopediaofarkansas.net. Accessed November 29, 2022.
- ^ "Lee McKnight Purcell Obituary". tributearchive.com. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
- ^ "Lee Purcell". IMDb. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
- ^ "Frank Dunn Williams".
- ^ "Dr. Donald I. Purcell". memorialsolutions.com. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ a b "Paragould Took Hat Off For Lee Purcell". usgennet.org. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ "Schenectady Gazette - Google News Archive Search".
- ^ "Columbia Missourian Newspaper 1967-01-15 :: Columbia Missourian (1967 -- Oct 1968)".
- ^ “Adam Travels to Excelsior Springs”, Columbia Missourian, September 21, 1969; accessed June 14, 2015.
- ^ a b Columbia Missourian November 26, 1972 "Success for Lee Purcell", cdm.sos.mo.gov; accessed June 14, 2015.
- ^ The Sumter Daily Item-Dec 26, 1969
- ^ Profile, Daily News (Bowling Green, KY), May 8, 1981.
- ^ "Mentored By the Biggest Star in the World: Inside Steve McQueen's 'Adam at 6 A.M.'—Interview by Jeremy Roberts for Medium". 13 April 2017.
- ^ Profile, Beaver County Times, September 25, 1969.
- ^ Profile, Times Daily, April 11, 1977.
- ^ Profile, Lakeland Ledger, January 20, 1985.
- ^ Profile, Sun Sentinel, July 19, 1991.
- ^ Profile, New York Times; accessed April 8, 2015.
- ^ "Lee Purcell". IMDb. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
- ^ "boomerbabes.com Traffic Analytics & Market Share". Similarweb. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
- ^ "BoomerBabes".
- ^ Kent, Stephen A.; Raine, Susan (2017). Scientology in Popular Culture. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 144. ISBN 9798216142621.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Lee Purcell at Wikimedia Commons
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
- 1947 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American actresses
- 21st-century American actresses
- Actresses from Arkansas
- Actresses from North Carolina
- American film actresses
- American Scientologists
- American television actresses
- People from Cherry Point, North Carolina
- People from Paragould, Arkansas
- Stephens College alumni