Don Murray
Born July 31, 1929 (Age: 96)
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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.
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.
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Filmography
Marilyn Monroe: I Want to Be Loved
2010
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as Self
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Age: 80
No Image
Fred Zinnemann - Der Mann, der 'High Noon' machte
2007
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as Self
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Age: 77
No Image
Hollywood Legenden
2004
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as Self
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Age: 74
No Image
Besuch bei Don Murray
2000
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as Self
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Age: 70
Internet Love
1998
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as Self
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Age: 68
Mr. Headmistress
1998
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as Reporter
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Age: 68
Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years
1997
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as Self
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Age: 67
No Image
Marilyn, divine et fragile
1996
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as Self
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Age: 67
Hearts Adrift
1996
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as Lloyd Raines
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Age: 67
Shurtleff on Acting
1994
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as Self
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Age: 64
No Image
Montana Crossroads
1993
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as Frank Morrow
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Age: 64
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
1991
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as Self
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Age: 62
Ghosts Can't Do It
1989
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as Winston
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Age: 60
My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He?
1989
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as Jack Karpinsky
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Age: 60
Remembering Marilyn
1988
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as
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Age: 59
Hollywood Uncensored
1987
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as Self
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Age: 58
Made in Heaven
1987
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as Ben Chandler
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Age: 58
Mistress
1987
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as Wyn
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Age: 58
The Stepford Children
1987
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as Steven Harding
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Age: 57
Stillwatch
1987
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as Sam Kingsley
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Age: 57
No Image
Hollywood's Hidden Secrets
1987
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as Self
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Age: 57
License to Kill
1986
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as Tom Fiske
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Age: 57
Peggy Sue Got Married
1986
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as Jack Kelcher
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Age: 57
Radioactive Dreams
1986
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as Dash Hammer
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Age: 57
T.J. Hooker: Blood Sport
1986
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as Senator Stuart Grayle
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Age: 56
Return of the Rebels
1981
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as Sonny Morgan
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Age: 52
Endless Love
1981
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as Hugh
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Age: 51
Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen
1981
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as Pimp
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Age: 51
Fugitive Family
1980
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as Peter Ritchie
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Age: 51
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
1980
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as Sergeant Jack Leland
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Age: 50
The Boy Who Drank Too Much
1980
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as Ken Saunders
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Age: 50
If Things Were Different
1980
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as Robert Langford
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Age: 50
Rainbow
1978
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as Frank Gumm
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Age: 49
The Sex Symbol
1974
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as Sen. Grant O'Neal
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Age: 45
The Girl on the Late, Late Show
1974
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as William Martin
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Age: 44
Cotter
1973
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as Cotter
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Age: 43
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1972
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as Breck
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Age: 42
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
1972
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as Justin Morgan
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Age: 42
Daughter of the Mind
1969
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as Dr. Alex Lauder
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Age: 40
No Image
Childish Things
1969
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as Tom Harris
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Age: 39
Baby the Rain Must Fall
1965
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as Deputy Sheriff Slim
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Age: 35
One Man's Way
1964
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as Norman Vincent Peale
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Age: 34
Escape from East Berlin
1962
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as Kurt Schröder
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Age: 33
Advise & Consent
1962
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as Senator Brigham Anderson
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Age: 32
The Hoodlum Priest
1961
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as Father Charles Dismas Clark
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Age: 31
One Foot in Hell
1960
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as Dan Keats
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Age: 31
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood
1960
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as Self
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Age: 30
No Image
Winterset
1959
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as Mio Romagna
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Age: 30
Shake Hands with the Devil
1959
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as Kerry O'Shea
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Age: 29
These Thousand Hills
1959
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as Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans
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Age: 29
From Hell to Texas
1958
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as Tod Lohman
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Age: 28
Bus Stop
1956
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as Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
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Age: 27
A Man Is Ten Feet Tall
1955
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as Axel Nordman
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Age: 26
The Taming of the Shrew
1950
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as Biondello
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Age: 20