
Don Murray
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1929-07-31
Day of Death
2024-02-02 (94 years old)
Place of Birth
Hollywood, California, USA
Don Murray
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.
Known For
Acting
(2025)
(2021)
Promise
as Zacharias
(2017)
Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers
as Self
(2015)
Tab Hunter Confidential
as Self
(2010)
(2010)
(2008)
(2007)
(2004)
Hollywood Legenden
as Self
(2001)
Island Prey
as Parker Gaits
(2000)
Besuch bei Don Murray
as Self
(1999)
(1998)
Internet Love
as Self
(1998)
Mr. Headmistress
as Reporter
(1997)
(1996)
Hearts Adrift
as Lloyd Raines
(1996)
Marilyn, divine et fragile
as Self
(1994)
Shurtleff on Acting
as Self
(1994)
(1991)
(1989)
Ghosts Can't Do It
as Winston
(1989)
My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He?
as Jack Karpinsky
(1987)
Hollywood Uncensored
as Self
(1987)
Made in Heaven
as Ben Chandler
(1987)
The Stepford Children
as Steven Harding
(1987)
Stillwatch
as Sam Kingsley
(1987)
Mistress
as Wyn
(1987)
Hollywood's Hidden Secrets
as Self
(1986)
Peggy Sue Got Married
as Jack Kelcher
(1986)
License to Kill
as Tom Fiske
(1986)
(1986)
T.J. Hooker - Blood Sport
as Senator Stuart Grayle
(1986)
Radioactive Dreams
as Dash Hammer
(1986)
Something in Common
as Theo Fontana
(1986)
Scorpion
as Gifford Lease
(1984)
A Touch of Scandal
as Benjamin Gilvey
(1983)
Quarterback Princess
as Ralph Maida
(1983)
Thursday's Child
as Parker Alden
(1983)
I Am The Cheese
as David Farmer
(1981)
Endless Love
as Hugh
(1981)
(1981)
Return of the Rebels
as Sonny Morgan
(1980)
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
as Sergeant Jack Leland
(1980)
The Boy Who Drank Too Much
as Ken Saunders
(1980)
Fugitive Family
as Peter Ritchie
(1980)
If Things Were Different
as Robert Langford
(1979)
Crisis in Mid-Air
as Adam Travis
(1978)
Rainbow
as Frank Gumm
(1975)
Deadly Hero
as Edward A. Lacy
(1975)
A Girl Named Sooner
as Sheriff Phil Rotteman
(1974)
The Sex Symbol
as Sen. Grant O'Neal
(1974)
The Girl on the Late, Late Show
as William Martin
(1973)
Cotter
as Cotter
(1972)
(1972)
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
as Justin Morgan
(1971)
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
as Herb Shuttle
(1970)
The Intruders
as Sam Garrison
(1969)
Daughter of the Mind
as Dr. Alex Lauder
(1969)
Childish Things
as Tom Harris
(1967)
Sweet Love, Bitter
as David Hillary
(1967)
The Viking Queen
as Justinian
(1967)
The Borgia Stick
as Tom Harrison
(1966)
The Plainsman
as Wild Bill Hickok
(1966)
Kid Rodelo
as Kid Rodelo
(1965)
Baby, the Rain Must Fall
as Deputy Sheriff Slim
(1964)
One Man's Way
as Norman Vincent Peale
(1963)
Marilyn
as Self ("Bus Stop") (archive footage) (uncredited)
(1962)
Advise & Consent
as Senator Brigham Anderson
(1962)
Escape from East Berlin
as Kurt Schröder
(1961)
The Hoodlum Priest
as Father Charles Dismas Clark
(1960)
One Foot in Hell
as Dan Keats
(1960)
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood
as Self
(1959)
Shake Hands with the Devil
as Kerry O'Shea
(1959)
These Thousand Hills
as Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans
(1959)
Winterset
as Mio Romagna
(1958)
From Hell to Texas
as Tod Lohman
(1957)
The Bachelor Party
as Charlie Samson
(1957)
A Hatful of Rain
as Johnny Pope
(1956)
Bus Stop
as Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
(1955)
A Man Is Ten Feet Tall
as Axel Nordman
Crew
(2008)
Breathe
Director, Producer
(1976)
Damien's Island
Director
(1970)
The Cross and the Switchblade
Director, Writer
(1969)
Childish Things
Writer, Producer
(1961)
The Hoodlum Priest
Screenplay, Original Story, Producer