Purnell Busch Pratt (1885-1951) had a strong bass singing voice and ambitions to perform in opera. This didn’t work out for him, which must have given him mixed feelings when he appeared alongside Lawrence Tibbett in The Prodigal.
Pratt did, however, appear on the Broadway stage, including as a regular member of George M Cohan’s troupe. He made a couple of films for New York companies before his career was interrupted by the First World War, but began his run of well over a hundred appearances in 1925. He was always a supporting player, normally in a credited role. He was the focus of the interpolated scene in Scarface (1932), in which, as a newspaper publisher, he makes a censor-required speech condemning gangsterism. He also played Captain Wood in DeMille’s The Plainsman (1936).
In addition to his featured role as the loathsome Rodman in The Prodigal, Pratt was uncredited in two other Metro musicals: A Night at the Opera, as the mayor welcoming the ‘aviators’, and Rosalie.
