Don Murray

Acting

Born Jul 31, 1929

From Hollywood, California, USA

Died Feb 02, 2024

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.

Don Murray

Known For

Endless Love

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

Peggy Sue Got Married

Made in Heaven

Bus Stop

Advise & Consent

Shake Hands with the Devil

Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker

License to Kill

One Foot in Hell

Filmography — Acting

Endless Love

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

Peggy Sue Got Married

Made in Heaven

Bus Stop

Advise & Consent

Shake Hands with the Devil

Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker

License to Kill

One Foot in Hell

Quarterback Princess

Tab Hunter Confidential

Daughter of the Mind

The Plainsman

Deadly Hero

Rainbow

Baby the Rain Must Fall

Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend

The Borgia Stick

From Hell to Texas

Ghosts Can't Do It

The Stepford Children

Marilyn

Mr. Headmistress

T.J. Hooker: Blood Sport

These Thousand Hills

The Viking Queen

A Hatful of Rain

Thursday's Child

Island Prey

The Girl on the Late, Late Show

One Man's Way

I Am The Cheese

A Girl Named Sooner

Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop

A Touch of Scandal

Crisis in Mid-Air

Escape from East Berlin

If Things Were Different

Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years

Fugitive Family

Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen

Justin Morgan Had a Horse

Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers

Hollywood Uncensored

Return of the Rebels

Mistress

Radioactive Dreams

Hollywood Legenden

The Intruders

The Bachelor Party

Scorpion

Cotter

The Hoodlum Priest

Winterset

Stillwatch

Marilyn Monroe: I Want to Be Loved

Internet Love

The Sex Symbol

Happy Birthday, Wanda June

Kid Rodelo

Hollywood's Hidden Secrets

Promise

Hedda Hopper's Hollywood

Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess

Something in Common

Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man