British actor Edmund Purdom, star of Hollywood blockbusters "The Egyptian" and "The Prodigal" in the mid-50s, has died aged 82 in Rome where he was a longtime resident, his family told AFP on Friday.
Purdom, who died Thursday, began his acting career in theatre on both sides of the Atlantic.
He landed the lead role in the MGM musical "The Student Prince" in 1954, displacing an overweight Mario Lanzo, and moved on to replace Marlon Brando who opted out of "The Egyptian" the same year.
After settling in Rome in the mid-60s, Purdom played 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, Purdom was best known for abruptly leaving his first wife Anita Philips and their children to marry Mexican actress Linda Christian, with whom he starred in "Athena" (1954).
Christian was the ex-wife of American heartthrob Tyrone Power.
Copyright 2009  AFP Global Edition
