It is with sadness that Flinders University has learned of the recent passing of Noel Purdon.

Noel was instrumental in establishing the Department of Screen and Media at Flinders, after teaching Cinema Studies within the Drama program in the 1970s. Before his arrival at Flinders, Noel taught Drama and Film at the University of Bristol, and was a Research Fellow at Cambridge, where he founded the magazine Cinema with Raymond Williams.

After his retirement from Flinders in the 1990s, Noel regularly wrote film criticism for The Adelaide Review. Noel was an erudite writer, poet, director and actor for stage and screen, and is fondly remembered by his students and Flinders colleagues.