Biography

Nathan Purdee (born August 6, 1950 in Tampa, Florida) is an American serial actor. Purdee's father was an officer in theUnited States Air Force, and the family moved around many times. After spending formative years in Washington, D.C.,Bakersfield, California, and Kaiserslautern, Germany, he graduated from high school in Denver, Colorado. He now lives in Easton, Pennsylvania He first rose to prominence as mobster-turned-private investigator Nathan Hastings on the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless, a role he portrayed from 1985 to 1992. His involvement on Y&R (he was one of only two black cast members on the show in the late 1980s) paved the way for more African American additions to the cast. He left Y&R in December 1991 and moved to New York in January 1992 to play the role of District Attorney Hank Gannon on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, a role he would portray until 2003. Between "Y&R" and "OLTL" he portrayed Youngblood "Superfly" Priest in "The Return of Superfly," the third and final installment in the classic "Superfly" trilogy. On February 11, 2009 it was announced he would be returning to One Life to Live in April 2009. He is President of the film and multimedia production company Karmic Release Ltd.