Early life

Purcell was born in Wallasey, Merseyside, the son of Phil Myrtvedt and Mary T. "Maureen" (née Hassett) Purcell. He is of Irish and Norwegian descent. In 1972, he and his family moved to Bondi, New South Wales, and later to Western Sydney. He attended Blaxland East Public School and Blaxland High School, as well as St Dominic's College and McCarthy Catholic College. After becoming a landscape gardener, he grew tired of the profession and decided to become an actor after watching the film Platoon. He later attended the Australian Theatre for Young People and then enrolled at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, where he studied with Hugh Jackman.

Personal life

Purcell's three brothers and one sister live in Dundalk and hold Irish citizenship. In August 1997, Purcell started dating Rebecca Williamson. They married on 1 August 1998 after one year of dating and have four children together : son Joseph (born 12 August 1999), daughter Audrey (born 30 January 2001) and twins Lily-Rose and Augustus (born 7 July 2003). In October 2007, Purcell and Williamson separated and divorced on 22 October 2008. From 2011 to 2014 he dated actress AnnaLynne McCord, the couple broke up but in January 2016 it was announced that they resumed their relationship.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role
1999	First Daughter	Troy Nelson
2000	Mission: Impossible II	Ulrich
2001	Scenes of the Crime	Mark
2002	Equilibrium	Seamus
2003	Visitors	Luke
2004	Three Way	Lewis "Lew" Brookbank
2004	Blade: Trinity	Drake
2006	The Gravedancers	Harris McKay
2007	Primeval	Tim Manfrey
2009	Blood Creek	Victor Alan Marshall
2011	House of the Rising Sun	Tony
2011	Escapee	Jaxon
2011	Killer Elite	Davies
2011	Straw Dogs	Jeremy Niles
2012	Hijacked	Otto Southwell
2012	Bad Karma	Mack
2013	Officer Down	Royce Walker
2013	Assault on Wall Street	Jim Baxford
2013	Vikingdom	Eirick
2013	Breakout	Tommy Baxter
2013	Suddenly	Baron
2013	Ice Soldiers	Malraux
2014	In the Name of the King 3: The Last Mission	Hazen Kaine
2014	Turkey Shoot	Cmdr Rick Tyler
2014	The Ganzfeld Haunting	Detective Malone
2014	The Bag Man	Larson
2014	A Fighting Man	Sailor O'Connor
2015	Gridlocked	David Hendrix

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Home and Away	Constable Rogers	3 episodes
1997-98	Raw FM	Granger Hutton	13 episodes
1998	Water Rats	Alex	2 episodes
1999	Heartbreak High	Todd Gillespie	6 episodes
2001	BeastMaster	Kelb	5 episodes
	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World	Condillac	1 episode
	Invincible	Keith Grady	TV movie
2002-03	John Doe	John Doe	22 episodes
2004	House	Ed Snow	1 episode
2004-05	North Shore	Tommy Ravetto	5 episodes
2005-09	Prison Break	Lincoln Burrows	81 episodes
2011	Castle	Russell Ganz	1 episode
2012	Common Law	John Crowl	1 episode
2014	The Flash	Mick Rory / Heat Wave / Chronos	Recurring
2016-present	Legends of Tomorrow		Main role
2017	Prison Break	Lincoln Burrows	Main role

Video games

Year	Title	Role
2010	Prison Break: The Conspiracy	Lincoln Burrows

Awards and nominations

Film

Year	Work	Award	Category	Result
2009	Balibo	Inside Film Awards	Best Feature Film	Nominated

Television

Year	Title	Award	Category	Result
2007	Prison Break	AACTA Awards	Best Actor	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]