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.
117 acting credits · 3 directing credits
Acting · 117
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962
Murder, She Wrote
1984
The Mike Douglas Show
1961
Golden Globe Awards
1944
Twin Peaks
1990
Knots Landing
1979
Wings
1990
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
Hotel
1982
Matlock
1986
What's My Line?
1950
Studio One
1948
The Ed Sullivan Show
1948
ABC Afterschool Special
1972
Playhouse 90
1956
The Single Guy
1995
Police Story
1973
The Wonderful World of Disney
1997
Kraft Television Theatre
1947
How the West Was Won
1977
Lux Video Theatre
1950
Made in Heaven
1987
Danger
1950
The Wonderful World of Disney
1954
Producers' Showcase
1954
The Outcasts
1968
Soldier of Fortune, Inc.
1997
Orson Welles' Great Mysteries
1973
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951
Endless Love
1981
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1972
Peggy Sue Got Married
1986
Amy Prentiss
1974
Brand New Life
1989
Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen
1981
Bus Stop
1956
Mr. Headmistress
1998
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
1991
Sons and Daughters
1991
Tab Hunter Confidential
2015
Shake Hands with the Devil
1959
Advise & Consent
1962
The Plainsman
1966
A Hatful of Rain
1957
The Boy Who Drank Too Much
1980
Hollywood Legenden
2004
Deadly Hero
1975
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
1986
Baby the Rain Must Fall
1965
The Intruders
1970
Ghosts Can't Do It
1989
The Viking Queen
1967
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
1999
Marilyn
1963
Hollywood Uncensored
1987
Rainbow
1978
Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years
1997
Daughter of the Mind
1969
License to Kill
1986
From Hell to Texas
1958
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood
1960
Fugitive Family
1980
Radioactive Dreams
1986
Quarterback Princess
1983
The Sex Symbol
1974
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
1972
Internet Love
1998
Crisis in Mid-Air
1979
The Stepford Children
1987
Thursday's Child
1983
Cotter
1973
The Borgia Stick
1967
The Hoodlum Priest
1961
T.J. Hooker: Blood Sport
1986
These Thousand Hills
1959
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
1980
Marilyn Monroe: I Want to Be Loved
2010
If Things Were Different
1980
One Foot in Hell
1960
My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He?
1989
Mistress
1987
The Girl on the Late, Late Show
1974
Escape from East Berlin
1962
Riots & Revolutions: Confronting the Times
2008
Marilyn, Her Final Secret
2022
Hollywood's Hidden Secrets
1987
Stillwatch
1987
A Man Is Ten Feet Tall
1955
One Man's Way
1964
Hearts Adrift
1996
A Touch of Scandal
1984
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
1971
The Bachelor Party
1957
Scorpion
1986
A Girl Named Sooner
1975
Something in Common
1986
I Am the Cheese
1983
Kid Rodelo
1966
Sweet Love, Bitter
1967
Winterset
1959
Return of the Rebels
1981
Fred Zinnemann - Der Mann, der 'High Noon' machte
2007
Island Prey
2001
Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess
1994
Childish Things
1969
Shurtleff on Acting
1994
Norma Jean Alias Marilyn Monroe
1987
Gold of Rio Bravo: Sheriff Kelly's Story
2025
Promise
2021
Remembering Marilyn
1988
Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers
2017
Marilyn Monroe: In The Movies
2012
Marilyn, divine et fragile
1996
The Taming of the Shrew
1950
Montana Crossroads
1993
Marilyn despite herself
2012
Besuch bei Don Murray
2000
