Edmund Purdom, the British actor who starred in the Hollywood costume pageants “The Egyptian” and “The Prodigal” in the mid-1950s, died in Rome. He was 84.

Mr. Purdom began his acting career in the theater on both sides of the Atlantic. He landed the lead in the MGM musical “The Student Prince” in 1954, replacing an overweight Mario Lanza, and later that year replaced Marlon Brando, who opted out of “The Egyptian.”

After settling in Rome, Mr. Purdom starred 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.

Source: NY Times