Don Murray
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- Jul 31, 1929
- Died
- Feb 2, 2024 (aged 94)
- Place of birth
- Hollywood, California, USA
- Credits
- 117
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
Twin Peaks
1990TV
Bushnell Mullins
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1972Movie
Breck
Peggy Sue Got Married
1986Movie
Jack Kelcher
Murder, She Wrote
1984TV
Wally Hampton
Endless Love
1981Movie
Hugh
Bus Stop
1956Movie
Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
Filmography
Gold of Rio Bravo: Sheriff Kelly's Story
2025Movie
Marilyn, Her Final Secret
2022Movie
Promise
2021Movie
Zacharias
Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers
2017Movie
Self
Tab Hunter Confidential
2015Movie
Self
Marilyn Monroe: In The Movies
2012Movie
Marilyn despite herself
2012Movie
Marilyn Monroe: I Want to Be Loved
2010Movie
Self
Riots & Revolutions: Confronting the Times
2008Movie
Self
Fred Zinnemann - Der Mann, der 'High Noon' machte
2007Movie
Self
Hollywood Legenden
2004Movie
Self
Island Prey
2001Movie
Parker Gaits
Besuch bei Don Murray
2000Movie
Self
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
1999Movie
Self
Internet Love
1998Movie
Self
Mr. Headmistress
1998Movie
Reporter
The Wonderful World of Disney
1997TV
Reporter
Soldier of Fortune, Inc.
1997TV
White Dragon / John James / Col. Quentin Shepherd
Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years
1997Movie
Self
Marilyn, divine et fragile
1996Movie
Self
Hearts Adrift
1996Movie
Lloyd Raines
The Single Guy
1995TV
Chip Bremley
Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess
1994Movie
Self
Shurtleff on Acting
1994Movie
Self
Montana Crossroads
1993Movie
Frank Morrow
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
1991Movie
Self
Sons and Daughters
1991TV
Bing Hammersmith
Wings
1990TV
Dad
Twin Peaks
1990TV
Bushnell Mullins
Ghosts Can't Do It
1989Movie
Winston
Brand New Life
1989TV
My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He?
1989Movie
Jack Karpinsky
Remembering Marilyn
1988Movie
Self (Interviewee)
Hollywood Uncensored
1987Movie
Self
Made in Heaven
1987Movie
Ben Chandler
Mistress
1987Movie
Wyn
Norma Jean Alias Marilyn Monroe
1987Movie
archive footage
The Stepford Children
1987Movie
Steven Harding
Stillwatch
1987Movie
Sam Kingsley
Hollywood's Hidden Secrets
1987Movie
Self
License to Kill
1986Movie
Tom Fiske
Scorpion
1986Movie
Gifford Lease
Something in Common
1986Movie
Theo Fontana
Peggy Sue Got Married
1986Movie
Jack Kelcher
Radioactive Dreams
1986Movie
Dash Hammer
T.J. Hooker: Blood Sport
1986Movie
Senator Stuart Grayle
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
1986Movie
Self
Matlock
1986TV
Albert Gordon
A Touch of Scandal
1984Movie
Benjamin Gilvey
Murder, She Wrote
1984TV
Wally Hampton
Quarterback Princess
1983Movie
Ralph Maida
I Am the Cheese
1983Movie
David Farmer
Thursday's Child
1983Movie
Parker Alden
Hotel
1982TV
Sam Burton
Return of the Rebels
1981Movie
Sonny Morgan
Endless Love
1981Movie
Hugh
Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen
1981Movie
Pimp
Fugitive Family
1980Movie
Peter Ritchie
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
1980Movie
Sergeant Jack Leland
The Boy Who Drank Too Much
1980Movie
Ken Saunders
If Things Were Different
1980Movie
Robert Langford
Knots Landing
1979TV
Sid Fairgate
Crisis in Mid-Air
1979Movie
Adam Travis
Rainbow
1978Movie
Frank Gumm
How the West Was Won
1977TV
Anderson
Deadly Hero
1975Movie
Edward A. Lacy
A Girl Named Sooner
1975Movie
Sheriff Phil Rotteman
Amy Prentiss
1974TV
Connors
The Sex Symbol
1974Movie
Sen. Grant O'Neal
The Girl on the Late, Late Show
1974Movie
William Martin
Orson Welles' Great Mysteries
1973TV
Jack Stanley
Police Story
1973TV
Jack Bonner
Cotter
1973Movie
Cotter
ABC Afterschool Special
1972TV
Jack Karpinsky
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1972Movie
Breck
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
1972Movie
Justin Morgan
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
1971Movie
Herb Shuttle
The Intruders
1970Movie
Sam Garrison
Daughter of the Mind
1969Movie
Dr. Alex Lauder
Childish Things
1969Movie
Tom Harris
The Outcasts
1968TV
Earl Corey
The Viking Queen
1967Movie
Justinian
The Borgia Stick
1967Movie
Tom Harrison
Sweet Love, Bitter
1967Movie
David Hillary
The Plainsman
1966Movie
Wild Bill Hickok
Kid Rodelo
1966Movie
Kid Rodelo
Baby the Rain Must Fall
1965Movie
Deputy Sheriff Slim
One Man's Way
1964Movie
Norman Vincent Peale
Marilyn
1963Movie
archive footage
Escape from East Berlin
1962Movie
Kurt Schröder
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962TV
Self
Advise & Consent
1962Movie
Senator Brigham Anderson
The Mike Douglas Show
1961TV
Self
The Hoodlum Priest
1961Movie
Father Charles Dismas Clark
One Foot in Hell
1960Movie
Dan Keats
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood
1960Movie
Self
Winterset
1959Movie
Mio Romagna
Shake Hands with the Devil
1959Movie
Kerry O'Shea
These Thousand Hills
1959Movie
Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans
From Hell to Texas
1958Movie
Tod Lohman
A Hatful of Rain
1957Movie
Johnny Pope
The Bachelor Party
1957Movie
Charlie Samson
Playhouse 90
1956TV
Randy Bragg
Bus Stop
1956Movie
Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
A Man Is Ten Feet Tall
1955Movie
Axel Nordman
The Wonderful World of Disney
1954TV
Justin Morgan
Producers' Showcase
1954TV
Henry Antrobus
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951TV
Mio, Parker Alden
Lux Video Theatre
1950TV
Jimmy
Danger
1950TV
The Taming of the Shrew
1950Movie
Biondello
What's My Line?
1950TV
Self
Studio One
1948TV
Biondello
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948TV
Axel Nordman
The Ed Sullivan Show
1948TV
Self
Kraft Television Theatre
1947TV
George, Booth
Golden Globe Awards
1944TV
Self - Presenter