Early life Born in Manhattan to Cornelius and Frances Purcell, Gertrude graduated from
Hunter College and then took extension courses at
Columbia University, where she met
Leila Taylor, a journalism student. Right out of college, the two managed to get their script for
Voltaire, a three-act comedy, to director
Arthur Hopkins, who agreed to direct and produce it on Broadway. At the time, this made them the youngest playwrights to have a play on Broadway. Purcell also played a few parts on the stage during this time period.
Hollywood career By the early 1930, she had begun writing and adapting screenplays under contract at
Paramount Pictures, and by 1931, she had moved to Los Angeles. One of her first screenplays was the
Dorothy Arzner–directed
Honor Among Lovers, a Paramount film starring
Claudette Colbert and
Fredric March. Purcell—who was described by a friend as a "masculine, funny, and hard-drinking woman"—worked as a freelancer for much of her career, penning scripts for most of the major studios. Her biggest Hollywood credits include
The Invisible Woman,
The Lady and the Mob, and
Destry Rides Again. Purcell and screenwriter Edmund Hartman were supposed to write
Babes on Broadway at MGM, but producer
Arthur Freed fired the pair in order to assign the project to Freddy Finklehoffe. She appears to have married writer-producer
Islin Auster, who was 10 years her junior, in secret in Tijuana in 1932, but by 1940, they no longer appear to have been living together.
McCarthy era During the
McCarthy era, Purcell was noted as an "important" informer and a "cooperative witness" alongside industry insiders like Elia Kazan. She testified before the
House Committee on Un-American Activities that she had been a member of the Communist Party from 1939 to 1942 but that she had quit after becoming disenchanted with its policies. "I was fed up with thought control, lack of spirit and initiative," she said at the time. Purcell attempted suicide in the wake of her testimony, but her landlord found her in her Hollywood apartment on North Grace Street and had her transported to the hospital. "I have been out of work for a year, and I wanted to end it all," she told the police. She would never work in Hollywood again, but she would live another decade. Purcell died May 1, 1963, in Los Angeles. Her final resting place is unknown. == Selected plays ==