Daniel was born in Washington, D.C. and was raised in Vienna, Virginia where he was the fifth of six children. His father was a map maker and his mother was a homemaker. The Purcell children were constantly writing and performing their own plays and his first role was as a filing cabinet in his elementary school play. In middle school he played the butler in the play Cheaper by the Dozen because he was the only one who could affect a proper English accent. He has always had an ear for accents and has a wide repertoire of accents and dialects. In high school from his sophomore year on he had lead roles in every play performed at the school and even did summer stock at Wolf Trapp with performances at the Kennedy Center. He planned on majoring in Drama at college but by the middle of his senior year his plans had changed and he ended up earning a degree in computer science. He married Jennifer in 1980 and together they raise three wonderful Children. Daniel returned to acting in 2010 with an award-winning performance of Stanley Gardner in the play Run for Your Wife. Through a series of serendipitous events he learned of a film audition and decided to give it a try. He was cast as Olympic soccer coach Dettmar Kramer in For the Glory (2012) and his film and TV career had started.