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Don Murray

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.

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

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