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Don Murray
Acting
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 …
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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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BODY OF WORK
Don Murray's Filmography
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Gold of Rio Bravo: Sheriff Kelly's Story
Marilyn, Her Final Secret
Promise
as Zacharias
Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers
as Self
Tab Hunter Confidential
as Self
No Poster
Marilyn Monroe: In The Movies
Marilyn despite herself
Marilyn Monroe: I Want to Be Loved
as Self
Riots & Revolutions: Confronting the Times
as Self
No Poster
Fred Zinnemann - Der Mann, der 'High Noon' machte
as Self
No Poster
Hollywood Legenden
as Self
Island Prey
as Parker Gaits
No Poster
Besuch bei Don Murray
as Self
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
as Self
Internet Love
as Self
Mr. Headmistress
as Reporter
Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years
as Self
No Poster
Marilyn, divine et fragile
as Self
Hearts Adrift
as Lloyd Raines
Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess
as Self
Shurtleff on Acting
as Self
No Poster
Montana Crossroads
as Frank Morrow
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
as Self
Ghosts Can't Do It
as Winston
My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He?
as Jack Karpinsky
No Poster
Remembering Marilyn
as Self (Interviewee)
Hollywood Uncensored
as Self
Made in Heaven
as Ben Chandler
Mistress
as Wyn
Norma Jean Alias Marilyn Monroe
as archive footage
The Stepford Children
as Steven Harding
Stillwatch
as Sam Kingsley
No Poster
Hollywood's Hidden Secrets
as Self
License to Kill
as Tom Fiske
Scorpion
as Gifford Lease
Something in Common
as Theo Fontana
Peggy Sue Got Married
as Jack Kelcher
Radioactive Dreams
as Dash Hammer
T.J. Hooker: Blood Sport
as Senator Stuart Grayle
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
as Self
A Touch of Scandal
as Benjamin Gilvey
Quarterback Princess
as Ralph Maida
I Am the Cheese
as David Farmer
Thursday's Child
as Parker Alden
Return of the Rebels
as Sonny Morgan
Endless Love
as Hugh
Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen
as Pimp
Fugitive Family
as Peter Ritchie
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
as Sergeant Jack Leland
The Boy Who Drank Too Much
as Ken Saunders
If Things Were Different
as Robert Langford
Crisis in Mid-Air
as Adam Travis
Rainbow
as Frank Gumm
Deadly Hero
as Edward A. Lacy
A Girl Named Sooner
as Sheriff Phil Rotteman
The Sex Symbol
as Sen. Grant O'Neal
The Girl on the Late, Late Show
as William Martin
Cotter
as Cotter
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
as Breck
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
as Justin Morgan
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
as Herb Shuttle
The Intruders
as Sam Garrison
Daughter of the Mind
as Dr. Alex Lauder
Childish Things
as Tom Harris
The Viking Queen
as Justinian
The Borgia Stick
as Tom Harrison
Sweet Love, Bitter
as David Hillary
The Plainsman
as Wild Bill Hickok
Kid Rodelo
as Kid Rodelo
Baby the Rain Must Fall
as Deputy Sheriff Slim
One Man's Way
as Norman Vincent Peale
Marilyn
as archive footage
Escape from East Berlin
as Kurt Schröder
Advise & Consent
as Senator Brigham Anderson
The Hoodlum Priest
as Father Charles Dismas Clark
One Foot in Hell
as Dan Keats
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood
as Self
No Poster
Winterset
as Mio Romagna
Shake Hands with the Devil
as Kerry O'Shea
These Thousand Hills
as Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans
From Hell to Texas
as Tod Lohman
A Hatful of Rain
as Johnny Pope
The Bachelor Party
as Charlie Samson
Bus Stop
as Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
A Man Is Ten Feet Tall
as Axel Nordman
The Taming of the Shrew
as Biondello