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