Don Murray (actor)

Donald Patrick Murray was an American actor best known for his breakout performance in the film Bus Stop, which earned him a nomination for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His other films include A Hatful of Rain, Shake Hands with the Devil, One Foot in Hell, The Hoodlum Priest, Advise & Consent, Baby the Rain Must Fall, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Deadly Hero, and Peggy Sue Got Married.
Murray starred in television series such as The Outcasts, Knots Landing, and Twin Peaks.

Early life and career

Donald Patrick Murray was born in Los Angeles on July 31, 1929, the second of three children, to Dennis Aloisius Murray, a Broadway dance director and stage manager, and Ethel Murray, a former Ziegfeld Follies performer.
Murray attended East Rockaway High School in East Rockaway, New York, where he played football and was on the track team. He was a member of the student government and glee club, and joined the Alpha Phi chapter of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity. After graduating, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Soon after graduating from the AADA, he made his Broadway debut as Jack Hunter in The Rose Tattoo.
A member of the Church of the Brethren, Murray registered as a conscientious objector during the Korean War, when many young American men were being drafted into the armed forces. Murray was assigned to alternative service in Europe, where he helped orphans and war casualties.
In 1954, Murray returned from Europe to the U.S. and acting. He starred alongside Mary Martin in the stage version of The Skin of Our Teeth. Upon seeing his performance in the play, director Joshua Logan cast him in 20th Century Fox's film adaptation of William Inge's play Bus Stop.

Film and television career

Murray's role as Beauregard "Beau" Decker in Bus Stop marked his film debut. He starred alongside Marilyn Monroe, who played Cherie, the object of his desire. His performance as the innocent cowboy determined to get Cherie was well received, and he was nominated for a BAFTA for Most Promising Newcomer and for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 1957, Murray starred as reserved, married bookkeeper Charlie Sampson in The Bachelor Party. That same year he had one of his most successful roles, the morphine-addicted Korean War veteran Johnny Pope in the drama A Hatful of Rain. Despite director Fred Zinnemann's intention to cast Murray as the comical brother Polo, Murray insisted on playing the lead. The film was one of the first to show the effects of drug abuse on addicts and the people around them.
Murray starred as a blackmailed United States senator in Advise & Consent, a film version of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Allen Drury. The movie was directed by Otto Preminger and co-starred Henry Fonda and Charles Laughton. Murray co-starred with Steve McQueen in Baby the Rain Must Fall and played the ape-hating Governor Breck in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
In 1976, Murray starred in the film Deadly Hero. In addition to acting, he directed a film based on the book The Cross and the Switchblade. He starred with Otis Young in the ABC western television series The Outcasts, featuring an interracial bounty hunter team in the post-Civil War West.
In 1979, Murray starred as Sid Fairgate on the prime-time soap opera Knots Landing. He also scripted two episodes of the show in 1980. In 1981, Murray left the series after two seasons either to concentrate on other projects, or, according to some sources, 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 season two's cliffhanger in which Sid's car careened off a cliff. To make viewers doubt the character had actually died, Murray was listed in the credit sequence for season three; in fact, season three revealed that Fairgate had survived the plunge off the cliff, but died shortly afterward in a hospital. Although he effectively distanced himself from the series after that, Murray contributed an interview segment for the 2005 reunion special Knots Landing: Together Again.

Retrospective

In July 2014, a retrospective of Murray's films was held at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco.

Personal life

In 1956, Murray married Hope Lange, with whom he co-starred in Bus Stop. They had two children, Christopher and Patricia. They divorced in 1961. In 1962, he married Elizabeth Johnson. They had three children, Colleen, Sean, and Michael.
Murray lived in Goleta, California. He died at his home on February 2, 2024, at the age of 94.

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Role
1956	Bus Stop	Beauregard "Bo" Decker
1957	The Bachelor Party	Charlie Samson
1957	A Hatful of Rain	Johnny Pope
1958	From Hell to Texas	Tod Lohman
1959	These Thousand Hills	Albert Gallatin "Lat" Evans
1959	Shake Hands with the Devil	Kerry O'Shea
1960	One Foot in Hell	Dan Keats
1961	The Hoodlum Priest	Father Charles Dismas Clark
1962	Advise & Consent	Senator Brigham Anderson
1962	Escape from East Berlin	Kurt Schröder
1964	One Man's Way	Norman Vincent Peale
1965	Baby the Rain Must Fall	"Slim"
1966	Kid Rodelo	"Kid" Rodelo
1966	The Plainsman	Bill "Wild Bill" Hickok
1967	Sweet Love, Bitter	David Hillary
1967	The Viking Queen	Justinian
1969	Childish Things	Tom Harris
1971	Happy Birthday, Wanda June	Herb Shuttle
1972	Call Me by My Rightful Name	Doug
1972	Justin Morgan Had a Horse	Justin Morgan
1972	Conquest of the Planet of the Apes	Governor Breck
1973	Cotter	Cotter
1975	Deadly Hero	Lacy
1981	Endless Love	Hugh Butterfield
1983	I Am the Cheese	David Farmer
1985	Radioactive Dreams	Dash Hammer
1986	Peggy Sue Got Married	Jack Kelcher
1986	Scorpion	Gifford Leese
1987	Made in Heaven	Ben Chandler
1990	Ghosts Can't Do It	Winston
2000	Internet Love	Unknown
2001	Island Prey	Parker Gaits
2001	Elvis Is Alive	Unknown
2021	Promise	Zacharias