James Brian Mark Purefoy (born 3 June 1964) is an English actor, producer and director. He played Mark Antony in the HBO series Rome, former college professor-turned-serial-killer Joe Carroll in the series The Following, and Solomon Kane in the feature film Solomon Kane. In February 2018 he starred as Laurens Bancroft in Altered Carbon, a Netflix original series.\n', '

He was born in Somerset and attended Sherborne School before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama. His appearances in stage plays and a variety of television roles in the UK and USA have grown since the 1980s.\n', '

Purefoy was born in Taunton, Somerset, the eldest son of Anthony Chetwynd and Shirley (née Taylor) Purefoy. He boarded at Sherborne School, which he left with only one O-level. He later went to night school and received 11 more O-levels, before taking his A-levels at Brooklands College in Weybridge. He worked as a porter at Yeovil District Hospital before studying acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama.\n', '

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