Don 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.
Acted in
Promise
2021
as Zacharias
Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers
2017
as Self
Tab Hunter Confidential
2015
as Self
Marilyn Monroe: I Want to Be Loved
2010
as Self
Marilyn Monroe: Death of an Icon
2010
as Self
Riots & Revolutions: Confronting the Times
2008
as Self
Fred Zinnemann - Der Mann, der 'High Noon' machte
2007
as Self
Hollywood Legenden
2004
as Self
Island Prey
2001
as Parker Gaits
Besuch bei Don Murray
2000
as Self
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
1999
as Self
Internet Love
1998
as Self
The Wonderful World of Disney
1997
as Reporter
Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years
1997
as Self
Marilyn, divine et fragile
1996
as Self
Hearts Adrift
1996
as Lloyd Raines
The Single Guy
1995
as Chip Bremley
Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess
1994
as Self
Shurtleff on Acting
1994
as Self
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
1991
as Self
Sons and Daughters
1991
as Bing Hammersmith
Wings
1990
as Dad
Twin Peaks
1990
as Bushnell Mullins
Ghosts Can't Do It
1989
as Winston
Brand New Life
1989
My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He?
1989
as Jack Karpinsky
Hollywood Uncensored
1987
as Self
Made in Heaven
1987
as Ben Chandler
The Stepford Children
1987
as Steven Harding
Stillwatch
1987
as Sam Kingsley
Hollywood's Hidden Secrets
1987
as Self
License to Kill
1986
as Tom Fiske
Scorpion
1986
as Gifford Lease
Something in Common
1986
as Theo Fontana
Peggy Sue Got Married
1986
as Jack Kelcher
Radioactive Dreams
1986
as Dash Hammer
T.J. Hooker - Blood Sport
1986
as Senator Stuart Grayle
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
1986
as Self
Matlock
1986
as Albert Gordon
A Touch of Scandal
1984
as Benjamin Gilvey
Murder, She Wrote
1984
as Wally Hampton
Quarterback Princess
1983
as Ralph Maida
I Am The Cheese
1983
as David Farmer
Thursday's Child
1983
as Parker Alden
Hotel
1982
Return of the Rebels
1981
as Sonny Morgan
Endless Love
1981
as Hugh
Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen
1981
as Pimp
Fugitive Family
1980
as Peter Ritchie
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
1980
as Sergeant Jack Leland
The Boy Who Drank Too Much
1980
as Ken Saunders
If Things Were Different
1980
as Robert Langford
Knots Landing
1979
as Sid Fairgate
Crisis in Mid-Air
1979
as Adam Travis
Rainbow
1978
as Frank Gumm
How the West Was Won
1977
as Anderson
Deadly Hero
1975
as Edward A. Lacy
A Girl Named Sooner
1975
as Sheriff Phil Rotteman
Amy Prentiss
1974
The Sex Symbol
1974
as Sen. Grant O'Neal
The Girl on the Late, Late Show
1974
as William Martin
Police Story
1973
Cotter
1973
as Cotter
ABC Afterschool Special
1972
as Jack Karpinsky
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1972
as Breck
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
1972
as Justin Morgan
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
1971
as Herb Shuttle
The Intruders
1970
as Sam Garrison
Daughter of the Mind
1969
as Dr. Alex Lauder
Childish Things
1969
as Tom Harris
The Outcasts
1968
The Viking Queen
1967
as Justinian
The Borgia Stick
1967
as Tom Harrison
Sweet Love, Bitter
1967
as David Hillary
The Plainsman
1966
as Wild Bill Hickok
Kid Rodelo
1966
as Kid Rodelo
Baby, the Rain Must Fall
1965
as Deputy Sheriff Slim
One Man's Way
1964
as Norman Vincent Peale
Marilyn
1963
as Self ("Bus Stop") (archive footage) (uncredited)
Escape from East Berlin
1962
as Kurt Schröder
Advise & Consent
1962
as Senator Brigham Anderson
The Hoodlum Priest
1961
as Father Charles Dismas Clark
One Foot in Hell
1960
as Dan Keats
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood
1960
as Self
Winterset
1959
as Mio
Shake Hands with the Devil
1959
as Kerry O'Shea
These Thousand Hills
1959
as Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans
From Hell to Texas
1958
as Tod Lohman
A Hatful of Rain
1957
as Johnny Pope
The Bachelor Party
1957
as Charlie Samson
Playhouse 90
1956
as Randy Bragg
Bus Stop
1956
as Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
A Man Is Ten Feet Tall
1955
as Axel Nordman
The Wonderful World of Disney
1954
as Justin Morgan
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
as Mio
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
as Parker Alden
Lux Video Theatre
1950
as Jimmy
What's My Line?
1950
as Self - Mystery Guest
Studio One
1948
as Biondello
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
as Axel Nordman
Kraft Television Theatre
1947
Kraft Television Theatre
1947
as Booth
Kraft Television Theatre
1947
as George