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Donald Patrick "Don" Murray (July 31, 1929-February 2, 2024) was an American actor.
Murder, She Wrote
1984
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.
Gender
Male
Birthday
July 31, 1929
Died
February 2, 2024
Birthplace
Hollywood, California, USA
Also Known As
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2004
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1981
The Stepford Children
1987
Bus Stop
1956
The Bachelor Party
1957
Montana Crossroads
1993
The Viking Queen
1967
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1972
One Foot in Hell
1960
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1994
A Man Is Ten Feet Tall
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The Hoodlum Priest
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Made in Heaven
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1990
Murder, She Wrote
1984
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1961
Golden Globe Awards
1944
Matlock
1986
Wings
1990
Studio One
1948
Knots Landing
1979
Hotel
1982
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
Kraft Television Theatre
1947
Kraft Television Theatre
1947
Kraft Television Theatre
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What's My Line?
1950
The Wonderful World of Disney
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ABC Afterschool Special
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The Outcasts
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