Donald Patrick "Don" Murray (born July 31, 1929) is 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.
Movie | The Philly Sound... Heard 'Round the World | Self | 2023-09-23 |
Movie | Promise | Zacharias | 2021-04-06 |
Movie | Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers | Self | 2017-12-05 |
Movie | Tab Hunter Confidential | Self | 2015-03-15 |
Movie | Marilyn Monroe: Death of an Icon | Self | 2010-02-10 |
Movie | Marilyn Monroe: I Want to Be Loved | Self | 2010-02-10 |
Movie | Hollywood Legenden | Self | 2004-01-01 |
Movie | Island Prey | Parker Gaits | 2001-01-01 |
Movie | Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man | Self | 1999-03-04 |
Movie | Internet Love | Self | 1998-07-03 |
Movie | Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years | Self | 1997-01-21 |
Movie | Marilyn, divine et fragile | Self | 1996-12-31 |
Series | The Single Guy | Unknown | 1995-09-21 |
Movie | Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess | Self | 1994-10-17 |
Series | Sons and Daughters | Bing Hammersmith | 1991-01-04 |
Movie | Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker | Self | 1991-10-28 |
Movie | Ghosts Can't Do It | Winston | 1989-10-17 |
Series | Brand New Life | 1989-10-01 | |
Movie | Stillwatch | Sam Kingsley | 1987-02-10 |
Movie | Hollywood's Hidden Secrets | Self | 1987-01-01 |
Movie | The Stepford Children | Steven Harding | 1987-03-15 |
Movie | Hollywood Uncensored | Self | 1987-12-01 |
Movie | Made in Heaven | Ben Chandler | 1987-11-06 |
Movie | Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend | Self | 1986-04-19 |
Series | Matlock | Unknown | 1986-03-03 |
Movie | Radioactive Dreams | Dash Hammer | 1986-09-19 |
Movie | Peggy Sue Got Married | Jack Kelcher | 1986-10-10 |
Movie | License to Kill | Tom Fiske | 1986-12-16 |
Movie | Scorpion | Gifford Lease | 1986-12-01 |
Movie | Something in Common | Theo Fontana | 1986-11-02 |
Movie | A Touch of Scandal | Benjamin Gilvey | 1984-11-27 |
Movie | Thursday's Child | Parker Alden | 1983-02-01 |
Movie | Quarterback Princess | Ralph Maida | 1983-12-03 |
Movie | I Am The Cheese | David Farmer | 1983-11-11 |
Series | Hotel | Unknown | 1982-08-21 |
Movie | Endless Love | Hugh | 1981-07-17 |
Movie | Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen | Pimp | 1981-02-13 |
Movie | Return of the Rebels | Sonny Morgan | 1981-10-17 |
Movie | If Things Were Different | Robert Langford | 1980-01-16 |
Movie | The Boy Who Drank Too Much | Ken Saunders | 1980-02-06 |
Movie | Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop | Sergeant Jack Leland | 1980-04-28 |
Movie | Fugitive Family | Peter Ritchie | 1980-10-01 |
Movie | Crisis in Mid-Air | Adam Travis | 1979-02-13 |
Movie | Rainbow | Frank Gumm | 1978-11-06 |
Series | How the West Was Won | Unknown | 1977-02-06 |
Movie | A Girl Named Sooner | Sheriff Phil Rotteman | 1975-06-18 |
Movie | Deadly Hero | Edward A. Lacy | 1975-12-14 |
Movie | The Girl on the Late, Late Show | William Martin | 1974-04-01 |
Series | Amy Prentiss | Unknown | 1974-12-01 |
Movie | The Sex Symbol | Sen. Grant O'Neal | 1974-09-17 |
Series | Police Story | Unknown | 1973-03-20 |
Series | Orson Welles' Great Mysteries | Unknown | 1973-09-01 |
Movie | Justin Morgan Had a Horse | Justin Morgan | 1972-02-06 |
Movie | Conquest of the Planet of the Apes | Breck | 1972-06-29 |
Series | ABC Afterschool Special | Unknown | 1972-10-04 |
Movie | Happy Birthday, Wanda June | Herb Shuttle | 1971-12-09 |
Movie | The Intruders | Sam Garrison | 1970-11-10 |
Movie | Childish Things | Tom Harris | 1969-07-01 |
Movie | Daughter of the Mind | Dr. Alex Lauder | 1969-12-09 |
Series | The Outcasts | 1968-09-23 | |
Movie | Sweet Love, Bitter | David Hillary | 1967-01-30 |
Movie | The Viking Queen | Justinian | 1967-03-25 |
Movie | The Borgia Stick | Tom Harrison | 1967-02-25 |
Movie | Kid Rodelo | Kid Rodelo | 1966-01-01 |
Movie | The Plainsman | Wild Bill Hickok | 1966-08-01 |
Movie | Baby, the Rain Must Fall | Deputy Sheriff Slim | 1965-01-12 |
Movie | One Man's Way | Norman Vincent Peale | 1964-02-26 |
Movie | Marilyn | Self ("Bus Stop") (archive footage) (uncredited) | 1963-04-18 |
Movie | Advise & Consent | Senator Brigham Anderson | 1962-06-06 |
Movie | Escape from East Berlin | Kurt Schröder | 1962-10-22 |
Movie | The Hoodlum Priest | Father Charles Dismas Clark | 1961-03-26 |
Movie | Hedda Hopper's Hollywood | Self | 1960-01-10 |
Movie | One Foot in Hell | Dan Keats | 1960-09-11 |
Movie | These Thousand Hills | Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans | 1959-05-07 |
Movie | Shake Hands with the Devil | Kerry O'Shea | 1959-06-24 |
Movie | Winterset | Mio | 1959-10-26 |
Movie | From Hell to Texas | Tod Lohman | 1958-04-29 |
Movie | The Bachelor Party | Charlie Samson | 1957-04-09 |
Movie | A Hatful of Rain | Johnny Pope | 1957-07-17 |
Movie | Bus Stop | Beauregard 'Bo' Decker | 1956-08-31 |
Series | Hallmark Hall of Fame | Unknown | 1951-12-24 |
Series | Lux Video Theatre | Unknown | 1950-10-02 |
Series | The Ed Sullivan Show | Unknown | 1948-06-20 |
Series | Studio One | Unknown | 1948-11-07 |
Series | The Philco Television Playhouse | Unknown | 1948-10-03 |