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