Name
Don Murray
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1929-07-31
Deathday
2024-02-02 (95 years old)
Place of Birth
Hollywood, California, USA
Biography
Donald Patrick "Don" Murray (July 31, 1929-February 2, 2024) was an American actor.
Murray was born in Hollywood, California. He attended East Rockaway High School (class of 1947) in East Rockaway, New York where he played football and track, was a member of the student government and glee club and joined the Alpha Phi Chapter of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity. From high school he went on to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Murray had a long and varied career in films and television, including his role as Sid Fairgate in the long-running prime-time soap opera Knots Landing from 1979 to 1981. He was nominated for an Academy Award as best supporting actor in Bus Stop (1956) in which he co-starred with Marilyn Monroe.
He starred as a blackmailed United States senator in Advise & Consent (1961), a film version of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Allen Drury that was directed by Otto Preminger and cast Murray opposite Henry Fonda and Charles Laughton. He also co-starred with Steve McQueen in the film Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965) and played the ape-hating Governor Breck in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972).
In addition to acting, Murray directed a film based on the book The Cross and the Switchblade (1970) starring Pat Boone and Erik Estrada, and he scripted two episodes of Knots Landing ("Hitchhike" parts 1 & 2) in 1980.
Murray starred with Otis Young in the ground breaking ABC western television series The Outcasts (1968-69) featuring an interracial bounty hunter team in the post-Civil War West.
Murray decided to leave Knots Landing after two years to concentrate on other projects, although some sources say he left over a salary dispute. The character's death was notable at the time because it was considered rare to "kill off" a star character. The death came in the second episode of season three, following up on season two's cliffhanger in which Sid's car careered off a cliff. To make viewers off doubt the character would actually die, Murray was listed in the newly created credit sequence for season three; the character survived the plunge off the cliff (thus temporarily reassuring viewers), but died shortly afterwards in hospital.
Although he effectively distanced himself from the series after his exit in 1981, Murray later contributed an interview segment for Knots Landing: Together Again, a non-fiction reunion special made in 2005.
Murray was the first husband of actress Hope Lange. They had two children, including actor Christopher Murray.
Known For
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- 1972 Conquest of the Planet of the Apes as Breck
- 1967 The Borgia Stick as Tom Harrison
- 1956 Bus Stop as Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
- 1989 Ghosts Can't Do It as Winston
- 2000 Besuch bei Don Murray as Self
- 1959 Winterset as Mio Romagna
- 2004 Hollywood Legenden as Self
- 1967 The Viking Queen as Justinian
- 1969 Daughter of the Mind as Dr. Alex Lauder
- 1987 Made in Heaven as Ben Chandler
- 2007 Fred Zinnemann - Der Mann, der 'High Noon' machte as Self
- 2010 Marilyn Monroe: I Want to Be Loved as Self
- 1957 A Hatful of Rain as Johnny Pope
- 1986 Radioactive Dreams as Dash Hammer
- 1962 Advise & Consent as Senator Brigham Anderson
- 1987 Hollywood Uncensored as Self
- 1986 License to Kill as Tom Fiske
- 1959 These Thousand Hills as Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans
- 1981 Endless Love as Hugh
- 1971 Happy Birthday, Wanda June as Herb Shuttle
- 1974 The Girl on the Late, Late Show as William Martin
- 1975 Deadly Hero as Edward A. Lacy
- 1958 From Hell to Texas as Tod Lohman
- 1961 The Hoodlum Priest as Father Charles Dismas Clark
- 1965 Baby the Rain Must Fall as Deputy Sheriff Slim
- 1966 Kid Rodelo as Kid Rodelo
- 1983 I Am the Cheese as David Farmer
- 1983 Quarterback Princess as Ralph Maida
- 1994 Shurtleff on Acting as Self
- 1972 Justin Morgan Had a Horse as Justin Morgan
- 1960 One Foot in Hell as Dan Keats
- 1981 Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen as Pimp
- 1974 The Sex Symbol as Sen. Grant O'Neal
- 1986 Scorpion as Gifford Lease
- 1957 The Bachelor Party as Charlie Samson
- 2001 Island Prey as Parker Gaits
- 1986 Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend as Self
- 1996 Hearts Adrift as Lloyd Raines
- 1962 Escape from East Berlin as Kurt Schröder
- 1966 The Plainsman as Wild Bill Hickok
- 1970 The Intruders as Sam Garrison
- 1955 A Man Is Ten Feet Tall as Axel Nordman
- 1978 Rainbow as Frank Gumm
- 1979 Crisis in Mid-Air as Adam Travis
- 1964 One Man's Way as Norman Vincent Peale
- 1959 Shake Hands with the Devil as Kerry O'Shea
- 1996 Marilyn, divine et fragile as Self
- 2021 Promise as Zacharias
- 1987 Hollywood's Hidden Secrets as Self
- 1980 The Boy Who Drank Too Much as Ken Saunders
- 1969 Childish Things as Tom Harris
- 1987 The Stepford Children as Steven Harding
- 1999 Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man as Self
- 1998 Internet Love as Self
- 1980 Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop as Sergeant Jack Leland
- 1960 Hedda Hopper's Hollywood as Self
- 1989 My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He? as Jack Karpinsky
- 1986 Peggy Sue Got Married as Jack Kelcher
- 2008 Riots & Revolutions: Confronting the Times as Self
- 2015 Tab Hunter Confidential as Self
- 1975 A Girl Named Sooner as Sheriff Phil Rotteman
- 1967 Sweet Love, Bitter as David Hillary
- 1983 Thursday's Child as Parker Alden
- 1984 A Touch of Scandal as Benjamin Gilvey
- 1987 Stillwatch as Sam Kingsley
- 1994 Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess as Self
- 1981 Return of the Rebels as Sonny Morgan
- 1980 Fugitive Family as Peter Ritchie
- 1991 Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker as Self
- 1973 Cotter as Cotter
- 1980 If Things Were Different as Robert Langford
- 1986 Something in Common as Theo Fontana
- 1997 Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years as Self
- 2017 Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers as Self
- 1986 T.J. Hooker: Blood Sport as Senator Stuart Grayle
- 2025 Gold of Rio Bravo: Sheriff Kelly's Story
- 1998 Mr. Headmistress as Reporter
- 1987 Mistress as Wyn
- 1993 Montana Crossroads as Frank Morrow
- 1950 The Taming of the Shrew as Biondello
- 1987 Norma Jean Alias Marilyn Monroe as archive footage
- 2022 Marilyn, Her Final Secret
- 1963 Marilyn as archive footage
- 1988 Remembering Marilyn as Self (Interviewee)
- 2012 Marilyn Monroe: In The Movies
- 2012 Marilyn despite herself
- 1995 The Single Guy ( 1 episode ) as Chip Bremley
- 1997 The Wonderful World of Disney ( 1 episode ) as Reporter
- 1982 Hotel ( 1 episode ) as Sam Burton
- 1948 Studio One ( 1 episode ) as Biondello
- 1948 The Ed Sullivan Show ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1951 Hallmark Hall of Fame ( 1 episode ) as Mio
- 1968 The Outcasts ( 26 episodes ) as Earl Corey
- 1973 Police Story ( 3 episodes ) as Jack Bonner
- 1974 Amy Prentiss ( 1 episode ) as Connors
- 1950 Lux Video Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Jimmy
- 1948 The Philco Television Playhouse ( 1 episode )
- 1972 ABC Afterschool Special ( 1 episode ) as Jack Karpinsky
- 1989 Brand New Life ( 6 episodes )
- 1991 Sons and Daughters ( 13 episodes ) as Bing Hammersmith
- 1986 Matlock ( 2 episodes ) as Albert Gordon
- 1950 What's My Line? ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 1951 Hallmark Hall of Fame ( 1 episode ) as Parker Alden
- 1956 Playhouse 90 ( 1 episode ) as Randy Bragg
- 1984 Murder, She Wrote ( 1 episode ) as Wally Hampton
- 1990 Wings ( 1 episode ) as Dad
- 1947 Kraft Television Theatre ( 1 episode )
- 1947 Kraft Television Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Booth
- 1947 Kraft Television Theatre ( 1 episode ) as George
- 1977 How the West Was Won ( 3 episodes ) as Anderson
- 1961 The Mike Douglas Show ( 6 episodes ) as Self
- 1962 The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ( 3 episodes ) as Self
- 1990 Twin Peaks ( 8 episodes ) as Bushnell Mullins
- 1948 The Philco Television Playhouse ( 1 episode ) as Axel Nordman
- 1979 Knots Landing ( 33 episodes ) as Sid Fairgate
- 1954 The Wonderful World of Disney ( 1 episode ) as Justin Morgan
- 1997 Soldier of Fortune, Inc. ( 1 episode ) as White Dragon / John James / Col. Quentin Shepherd
- 1973 Orson Welles' Great Mysteries ( 1 episode ) as Jack Stanley
- 1950 Danger ( 1 episode )
- 1954 Producers' Showcase ( 1 episode ) as Henry Antrobus
- 1944 Golden Globe Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - Presenter
