
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


