Don Murray

Don Murray

Acting

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.

Filmography Movies

Acting

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes movie poster

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

In a futuristic world that has embraced ape slavery, a chimpanzee named Caesar resurfaces after almost twenty years of hiding from the authorities, and prepares for a revolt against humanity.

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Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

The Borgia Stick movie poster

The Borgia Stick

A suburban couple discovers that they are pawns for a powerful crime syndicate. They try to break away from the cartel and go legitimate, but the syndicate doesn't want to give them up so easily.

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The Borgia Stick

Bus Stop movie poster

Bus Stop

Cowboys Beauregard Decker and Virgil Blessing attend a rodeo in Phoenix, where Decker falls in love with beautiful cafe singer Cherie. He wants to take Cherie back to his native Montana and marry her, but she dreams of traveling to Hollywood and becoming famous. When she resists his advances, Decker forces Cherie onto the bus back to Montana with him, but, when the bus makes an unscheduled stop due to bad weather, the tables are turned.

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Beauregard 'Bo' Decker

Ghosts Can't Do It movie poster

Ghosts Can't Do It

Elderly Scott kills himself after a heart attack wrecks his body, but then comes back as a ghost and convinces his loving young hot wife Kate to pick and kill a young man in order for Scott to possess his body and be with her again.

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Ghosts Can't Do It

Besuch bei Don MurrayMOVIE

Besuch bei Don Murray

Documentary about Don Murray.

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Besuch bei Don Murray

Winterset

Immigrant radical Bartolomeo Romagna is falsely condemned and executed for a payroll robbery. Years later, his son Mio sets out to find the truth of the crime and to bring to account the gangster Trock Estrella.

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Hollywood LegendenMOVIE

Hollywood Legenden

Documentary about Hollywood.

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Hollywood Legenden

The Viking Queen movie poster

The Viking Queen

Set in ancient Britain, at a time when much of Europe was ruled with harsh tyranny by Rome, a tribe of Britons led by Selina, set out to defy the invaders and discard their yoke of bondage. The Roman commander, Justinian, is sent to quell the uprising, punishing the dissenters with brute force but when he becomes emotionally attached to Selina, he is torn between his duty to Rome and his love for the Viking Queen.

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The Viking Queen

Daughter of the Mind movie poster

Daughter of the Mind

Professor Samuel Hale Constable is a government expert in the field of cybernetics. He and his wheelchair-bound wife Lenore became parents late in life, only to lose their daughter Mary before she reached adolescence. Now their daughter's spirit seems to be reaching out to her grief-stricken father from beyond the grave, encouraging him to give up the important project on which he's been working.

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Daughter of the Mind

Dr. Alex Lauder

Made in Heaven movie poster

Made in Heaven

Deceased drifter Mike arrives in Heaven and quickly falls for newborn soul Annie, soon to start her assignment on Earth. When Annie leaves, Mike follows.

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Production

The Cross and the Switchblade movie poster

The Cross and the Switchblade

David Wilkerson's first five years in New York City, where he ministered to disillusioned youth, encouraging them to turn away from the drugs and gang violence they were involved with.

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The Cross and the Switchblade

The Cross and the Switchblade movie poster

The Cross and the Switchblade

David Wilkerson's first five years in New York City, where he ministered to disillusioned youth, encouraging them to turn away from the drugs and gang violence they were involved with.

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The Cross and the Switchblade

The Hoodlum Priest movie poster

The Hoodlum Priest

Venturing into some of the roughest slums of St. Louis, Jesuit priest Rev. Charles Dismas Clark dedicates himself to helping young ex-convicts who are struggling to rejoin a society that fears and rejects them. An especially wrenching case for the Reverend is Billy Lee Jackson, a troubled thief whose personal demons constantly tempt him back to a life of crime — and may ultimately make him pay the highest price for a few desperate decisions.

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The Hoodlum Priest

Breathe movie poster

Breathe

A group of divers set out on a journey to film and explore the beauty of the ocean. However, during their latest dive, their oxygen runs low, risking their lives as they encounter sharks and other marine wildlife.

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Damien's Island movie poster

Damien's Island

A missionary tries to help lepers in a Hawaiian island.

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Damien's Island

The Hoodlum Priest movie poster

The Hoodlum Priest

Venturing into some of the roughest slums of St. Louis, Jesuit priest Rev. Charles Dismas Clark dedicates himself to helping young ex-convicts who are struggling to rejoin a society that fears and rejects them. An especially wrenching case for the Reverend is Billy Lee Jackson, a troubled thief whose personal demons constantly tempt him back to a life of crime — and may ultimately make him pay the highest price for a few desperate decisions.

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The Hoodlum Priest

Childish ThingsMOVIE

Childish Things

An alcoholic former serviceman goes to work collecting debts for gangsters and committing various other crimes, then has a religious conversion and helps other alcoholics.

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Childish Things

The Hoodlum Priest movie poster

The Hoodlum Priest

Venturing into some of the roughest slums of St. Louis, Jesuit priest Rev. Charles Dismas Clark dedicates himself to helping young ex-convicts who are struggling to rejoin a society that fears and rejects them. An especially wrenching case for the Reverend is Billy Lee Jackson, a troubled thief whose personal demons constantly tempt him back to a life of crime — and may ultimately make him pay the highest price for a few desperate decisions.

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The Hoodlum Priest

Childish ThingsMOVIE

Childish Things

An alcoholic former serviceman goes to work collecting debts for gangsters and committing various other crimes, then has a religious conversion and helps other alcoholics.

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Childish Things

Breathe movie poster

Breathe

A group of divers set out on a journey to film and explore the beauty of the ocean. However, during their latest dive, their oxygen runs low, risking their lives as they encounter sharks and other marine wildlife.

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Gallery

Don Murray portrait

Don Murray portrait

Don Murray portrait