Don Murray
Acting • Born 1929-07-31 – Died 2024-02-02
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
115 credits
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Movie • 1972
Breck
The Borgia Stick
Movie • 1967
Tom Harrison
Bus Stop
Movie • 1956
Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
Ghosts Can't Do It
Movie • 1989
Winston
Besuch bei Don Murray
Movie • 2000
Self
Winterset
Movie • 1959
Mio Romagna
Hollywood Legenden
Movie • 2004
Self
The Viking Queen
Movie • 1967
Justinian
Daughter of the Mind
Movie • 1969
Dr. Alex Lauder
Made in Heaven
Movie • 1987
Ben Chandler
Fred Zinnemann - Der Mann, der 'High Noon' machte
Movie • 2007
Self
Marilyn Monroe: I Want to Be Loved
Movie • 2010
Self
A Hatful of Rain
Movie • 1957
Johnny Pope
Radioactive Dreams
Movie • 1986
Dash Hammer
Advise & Consent
Movie • 1962
Senator Brigham Anderson
Hollywood Uncensored
Movie • 1987
Self
License to Kill
Movie • 1986
Tom Fiske
These Thousand Hills
Movie • 1959
Albert Gallatin 'Lat' Evans
Endless Love
Movie • 1981
Hugh
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
Movie • 1971
Herb Shuttle
The Girl on the Late, Late Show
Movie • 1974
William Martin
Deadly Hero
Movie • 1975
Edward A. Lacy
From Hell to Texas
Movie • 1958
Tod Lohman
The Hoodlum Priest
Movie • 1961
Father Charles Dismas Clark
Baby the Rain Must Fall
Movie • 1965
Deputy Sheriff Slim
Kid Rodelo
Movie • 1966
Kid Rodelo
I Am The Cheese
Movie • 1983
David Farmer
Quarterback Princess
Movie • 1983
Ralph Maida
Shurtleff on Acting
Movie • 1994
Self
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
Movie • 1972
Justin Morgan
One Foot in Hell
Movie • 1960
Dan Keats
Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen
Movie • 1981
Pimp
The Sex Symbol
Movie • 1974
Sen. Grant O'Neal
Scorpion
Movie • 1986
Gifford Lease
The Bachelor Party
Movie • 1957
Charlie Samson
Island Prey
Movie • 2001
Parker Gaits
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
Movie • 1986
Self
Hearts Adrift
Movie • 1996
Lloyd Raines
The Plainsman
Movie • 1966
Wild Bill Hickok
Escape from East Berlin
Movie • 1962
Kurt Schröder
The Intruders
Movie • 1970
Sam Garrison
A Man Is Ten Feet Tall
Movie • 1955
Axel Nordman
Rainbow
Movie • 1978
Frank Gumm
Crisis in Mid-Air
Movie • 1979
Adam Travis
One Man's Way
Movie • 1964
Norman Vincent Peale
Shake Hands with the Devil
Movie • 1959
Kerry O'Shea
Marilyn, divine et fragile
Movie • 1996
Self
Promise
Movie • 2021
Zacharias
Hollywood's Hidden Secrets
Movie • 1987
Self
The Boy Who Drank Too Much
Movie • 1980
Ken Saunders
Childish Things
Movie • 1969
Tom Harris
The Stepford Children
Movie • 1987
Steven Harding
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
Movie • 1999
Self
Internet Love
Movie • 1998
Self
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
Movie • 1980
Sergeant Jack Leland
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood
Movie • 1960
Self
My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He?
Movie • 1989
Jack Karpinsky
Peggy Sue Got Married
Movie • 1986
Jack Kelcher
Riots & Revolutions: Confronting the Times
Movie • 2008
Self
Tab Hunter Confidential
Movie • 2015
Self
A Girl Named Sooner
Movie • 1975
Sheriff Phil Rotteman
Sweet Love, Bitter
Movie • 1967
David Hillary
Thursday's Child
Movie • 1983
Parker Alden
A Touch of Scandal
Movie • 1984
Benjamin Gilvey
Stillwatch
Movie • 1987
Sam Kingsley
Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess
Movie • 1994
Self
Return of the Rebels
Movie • 1981
Sonny Morgan
Fugitive Family
Movie • 1980
Peter Ritchie
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
Movie • 1991
Self
Cotter
Movie • 1973
Cotter
If Things Were Different
Movie • 1980
Robert Langford
Something in Common
Movie • 1986
Theo Fontana
Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years
Movie • 1997
Self
Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers
Movie • 2017
Self
T.J. Hooker: Blood Sport
Movie • 1986
Senator Stuart Grayle
Gold of Rio Bravo: Sheriff Kelly's Story
Movie • 2025
Mr. Headmistress
Movie • 1998
Reporter
Mistress
Movie • 1987
Wyn
Montana Crossroads
Movie • 1993
Frank Morrow
The Taming of the Shrew
Movie • 1950
Biondello
The Single Guy
TV • 1995
Chip Bremley
The Wonderful World of Disney
TV • 1997
Reporter
Hotel
TV • 1982
Sam Burton
Studio One
TV • 1948
Biondello
The Ed Sullivan Show
TV • 1948
Self
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Mio
Police Story
TV • 1973
Jack Bonner
The Outcasts
TV • 1968
Earl Corey
Amy Prentiss
TV • 1974
Connors
Lux Video Theatre
TV • 1950
Jimmy
The Philco Television Playhouse
TV • 1948
ABC Afterschool Special
TV • 1972
Jack Karpinsky
Brand New Life
TV • 1989
Sons and Daughters
TV • 1991
Bing Hammersmith
Matlock
TV • 1986
Albert Gordon
What's My Line?
TV • 1950
Self
Hallmark Hall of Fame
TV • 1951
Parker Alden
Playhouse 90
TV • 1956
Randy Bragg
Wings
TV • 1990
Dad
Murder, She Wrote
TV • 1984
Wally Hampton
How the West Was Won
TV • 1977
Anderson
Kraft Television Theatre
TV • 1947
George
Kraft Television Theatre
TV • 1947
Kraft Television Theatre
TV • 1947
Booth
The Mike Douglas Show
TV • 1961
Self
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
TV • 1962
Self
Twin Peaks
TV • 1990
Bushnell Mullins
The Philco Television Playhouse
TV • 1948
Axel Nordman
Knots Landing
TV • 1979
Sid Fairgate
The Wonderful World of Disney
TV • 1954
Justin Morgan
Soldier of Fortune, Inc.
TV • 1997
White Dragon / John James / Col. Quentin Shepherd
Orson Welles' Great Mysteries
TV • 1973
Jack Stanley
Danger
TV • 1950
Producers' Showcase
TV • 1954
Henry Antrobus
Golden Globe Awards
TV • 1944
Self - Presenter