Biography

Dominic Purcell

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Dominic was born in England, to a Norwegian father and Irish mother. At the age of two, Dominic and his family moved from England to Sydney's Bondi and then moved to the Western Suburbs. After trying his hand at landscape gardening he decided to become an actor whilst watching the war movie Platoon (1986). Due to his working-class background, acting seemed a very unlikely choice of career, so he didn't pursue it until some time later. He studied at The Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) and then later enrolled at the Western Australian Academy of Performing arts where he met his future wife Rebecca and studied with Hugh Jackman. In 1997, Dominic scored a role in the TV series Raw FM (1997) and then landed a part in Mission: Impossible II (2000), which was filmed in Australia. He became a TV star. In 2000, he won the Green Card lottery and now lives in Los Angeles with his family. He was spotted by a US talent scout and has been working constantly with roles in the movie Equilibrium (2002), the TV show John Doe (2002), Blade: Trinity (2004), and in the upcoming thriller Three Way (2004) and a new police television drama, Strut.
- IMDb mini biography by: Nichol and Aeryn

Whilst in Ireland at Christmas 2007 he and his brother saved the life of a 16 month old boy, who was choking, by slapping his back to dislodge an onion ring and then Damian giving CPR until he started breathing again. Til this day both Dom and Damian keep in touch with the child and the boy's family.
He was a classmate of Hugh Jackman at the Western Australia Academy of Performing Arts.
Did all of his stunts in the sword fight scene against Blade in Blade: Trinity (2004).
During filming of Prison Break: Sequel he was seriously injured and suffered from a broken nose and a head injury.
Has four children: Joseph (b. August 12th 1999), Audrey (b. January 30th 2001) and twins Lily-Rose and Augustus (b. July 7th 2003).

I've been here for five years, maybe four. I was doing 'John Doe,' and I was working ridiculous hours on that, and I was speaking American all day and then I'd get home and speak Australian and I just felt so exhausted by going back and forth that I just decided to speak it all the time. Now I just speak American.
My fighting style, if you will, is a combination of mimicking, cowboy films and boxing that I have done throughout my life.
Yeah, I'm a physical kind of guy. I've always liked being physical. It takes a stuntman to really say, 'Look, we don't want you to do this. No, no, I'm serious, you're not going to do this' to get me not to do my stuff.
I'm very appreciative and humbled by the success of 'Prison Break.'
I don't watch TV dramas. I watch ESPN, HBO boxing, National Geographic Channel and I kind of like to get some DVDs, movies that I haven't seen and I just pop them in.

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