Lee Purcell was born in Indiana on December 5, 1911. He worked as a model while completing an engineering degree at Purdue. He move to New York in the late 1940's where he continued to model for illustrator John Gannam (1907-1965). Purcell began working as an illustrator and cartoonist during this time.

He moved to Los Angeles where he continued to study art with Rico Lebrun and Howard Warshaw. He worked as a designer and aircraft packager for 30 years in California. During this time he learned serigraphy (screen-printing) from his neighbor Guy Maccoy (1904-1981) who is credited by many with developing serigraphy as an art form while working in the WPA. Maccoy went on to co-found the Western Serigraph Society in Los Angeles, of which Purcell was an early  member. Purcell later studied painting and Impressionism with Viona Ann Kendall.

Lee Purcell died in June of 1983 in Canoga Park, Los Angeles, Califormia.