Donald Patrick "Don" Murray (born July 31, 1929) is an American actor best known for his breakout performance in the film '' Bus Stop'' (1956, with

Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe (; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 4 August 1962) was an American actress. Famous for playing comedic " blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as wel ...

), which earned him a nomination for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His other films include ''

A Hatful of Rain ''A Hatful of Rain'' is a 1957 American drama film about a young married man with a secret morphine addiction, based on a 1955 Broadway play of the same name.Shake Hands with the Devil'' (1959, with James Cagney), ''

One Foot in Hell ''One Foot in Hell'' is the third studio album by the American heavy metal band Cirith Ungol. The original LP was produced by Brian Slagel and Cirith Ungol. It was released in August 1986 on Metal Blade Records and re-released in March 1999 b ...

'' (1960, with Alan Ladd), '' The Hoodlum Priest'' (1961), ''

Advise & Consent ''Advise & Consent'' is a 1962 American political drama film based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel ''Advise and Consent'' by Allen Drury, published in 1959. The film was adapted for the screen by Wendell Mayes and was directed by Otto ...

'' (1962, with

Henry Fonda Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor. He had a career that spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. He cultivated an everyman screen image in several films considered to be classics. Born and ra ...

and Charles Laughton), ''

Baby the Rain Must Fall ''Baby the Rain Must Fall'' is a 1965 American drama film directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Lee Remick, Steve McQueen and Don Murray. Dramatist Horton Foote, who wrote the screenplay, based it on his 1954 play ''The Traveling Lady.'' Thi ...

'' (1965, with Steve McQueen), ''

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes ''Conquest of the Planet of the Apes'' is a 1972 American science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson and written by Paul Dehn. It is the fourth of five films in the original ''Planet of the Apes'' series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs. The ...

'' (1972), ''

Deadly Hero ''Deadly Hero'' is a 1975 American neo noir thriller film starring Don Murray, Diahn Williams, James Earl Jones, Lilia Skala and Treat Williams (in his film debut). It was directed by Ivan Nagy from a screenplay by George Wislocki and Don Peter ...

'' (1975), and ''

Peggy Sue Got Married ''Peggy Sue Got Married'' is a 1986 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola starring Kathleen Turner as a woman on the verge of a divorce, who finds herself transported back to the days of her senior year in high sch ...

'' (1986, with Kathleen Turner). Murray starred in television series such as '' The Outcasts'' (1968–1969), '' Knots Landing'' (1979–1981), and ''

Twin Peaks ''Twin Peaks'' is an American mystery serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It premiered on ABC on April 8, 1990, and originally ran for two seasons until its cancellation in 1991. The show returned in 2017 for ...

'' (2017).

Early life and career

Murray was born in 1929, the second of three children, to Dennis Aloisius Murray, a Broadway dance director and stage manager, and Ethel Murray (née Cook), a former

Ziegfeld Follies The ''Ziegfeld Follies'' was a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 to 1931, with renewals in 1934 and 1936. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as ''The Ziegfeld Follies of the Ai ...

performer. Murray attended

East Rockaway High School East Rockaway Junior-Senior High School (often abbreviated ERHS) is a co-educational six-year secondary school in East Rockaway, New York, and the sole high school in Nassau County, New York, School District 41 (East Rockaway School District ...

(class of 1947) in

East Rockaway, New York East Rockaway is a village in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 9,818 at the 2010 census. The Incorporated Village of East Rockaway is at the edge of Rockaway Peninsula Proper in ...

, where he played football and was on the track team. He was a member of the student government, glee club, and joined the Alpha Phi Chapter of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity. Upon graduation from high school, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After graduating, he soon made his Broadway debut in the play ''

The Rose Tattoo ''The Rose Tattoo'' is a three-act play written by Tennessee Williams in 1949 and 1950; after its Chicago premiere on December 29, 1950, he made further revisions to the play for its Broadway premiere on February 2, 1951, and its publication by ...

'' (1951), as Jack Hunter. A member of the

Brethren Church The Brethren Church is an Anabaptist Christian denomination with roots in and one of several groups that trace its origins back to the Schwarzenau Brethren of Germany. Background The Brethren church tradition traces its roots back over 300 ...

, 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, he returned from Europe to the United States and acting. He starred alongside

Mary Martin Mary Virginia Martin (December 1, 1913 – November 3, 1990) was an American actress and singer. A muse of Rodgers and Hammerstein, she originated many leading roles on stage over her career, including Nellie Forbush in '' South Pacific'' (194 ...

in the stage version of ''

The Skin of Our Teeth ''The Skin of Our Teeth'' is a play by Thornton Wilder that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on October 15, 1942, at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway on November 18, ...

''. Upon seeing his performance in the play, director Joshua Logan decided to cast him in

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

's film adaptation of '' Bus Stop'', a play by

William Inge William Motter Inge (; May 3, 1913 – June 10, 1973) was an American playwright and novelist, whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s he had a string of memorable Broad ...

Film and television career

Don Murray and Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop trailer crop

Don Murray's role as Beauregard "Beau" Decker in '' Bus Stop'' (1956) marked his film debut. He starred alongside

, who played Cherie, the object of his desire. His performance as the innocent cowboy who is 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, he starred as reserved, married bookkeeper Charlie Sampson in ''

The Bachelor Party "The Bachelor Party" is a 1953 television play by Paddy Chayefsky which was adapted by Chayefsky for a 1957 film. The play premiered to critical acclaim. Plot Charlie Samson is a hard-working married bookkeeper in Manhattan, struggling to advanc ...

''. That same year he starred in one of his most successful roles, that of Johnny Pope in the drama ''

A Hatful of Rain ''A Hatful of Rain'' is a 1957 American drama film about a young married man with a secret morphine addiction, based on a 1955 Broadway play of the same name.Fred Zinnemann Alfred ''Fred'' Zinnemann (April 29, 1907 – March 14, 1997) was an Austrian Empire-born American film director. He won four Academy Awards for directing and producing films in various genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and pla ...

's intention to typecast the actor as the comical brother Polo, Murray insisted on playing the lead. Thus he portrayed Johnny Pope, a morphine-addicted Korean War veteran. The film was one of the first to show the effects of drug abuse on the addicted and those around him. He starred as a blackmailed United States senator in ''

'' (1962), a film version of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by

Allen Drury Allen Stuart Drury (September 2, 1918 – September 2, 1998) was an American novelist. During World War II, he was a reporter in the Senate, closely observing Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, among others. He would convert ...

. The movie was directed by

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( , ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian-American theatre and film director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the theatre. He first gai ...

and cast Murray opposite

and Charles Laughton. He also co-starred with Steve McQueen in ''

'' (1965), and played the ape-hating Governor Breck in ''

'' (1972). In 1976, Murray starred in the film ''

''. In addition to acting, Murray directed a film based on the book '' The Cross and the Switchblade'' (1970). He starred with

Otis Young Otis E. Young (July 4, 1932 – October 12, 2001) was an actor and writer. He co-starred in a television Western, '' The Outcasts'' (1968–1969), with Don Murray. Young was the second African-American actor to co-star in a television Western, ...

in the ABC western television series ''The Outcasts'' (1968–1969) featuring an interracial bounty hunter team in the post-

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

West. In 1979, he starred as Sid Fairgate on the long-running prime-time soap opera '' Knots Landing''. He also scripted two episodes of the program in 1980. In 1981, Murray decided to leave the series after two seasons to concentrate on other projects, but 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 season two's cliffhanger in which Sid's car careened off a cliff. To make viewers doubt that 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 (thus temporarily reassuring the viewers), but died shortly afterwards in hospital. Although he effectively distanced himself from the series after that, Murray later contributed an interview segment for ''Knots Landing: Together Again'', a reunion special made in 2005.

Retrospective

In July 2014, a retrospective of Murray's films was held at the

Roxie Theatre The Roxie Theatre is a historic former movie theater in the Broadway Theater District of Los Angeles, California. The venue opened in 1931 as the last theater to be built on Broadway. Architect John M. Cooper's Art Deco design of the Roxie rema ...

in San Francisco.

Personal life

In 1956, Murray married

Hope Lange Hope Elise Ross Lange (November 28, 1933 – December 19, 2003) was an American film, stage, and television actress. She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress ...

, with whom he had co-starred in ''Bus Stop''. They had two children, Christopher and Patricia. They divorced in 1961. In 1962, he married Elizabeth Johnson and then had three children, Coleen,

Sean Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as ''Shaun/ Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; angli ...

, and Michael.

Film

Feature films

Television films

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Don 1929 births Living people American male television actors American male stage actors American male film actors Male actors from California People from East Rockaway, New York American Academy of Dramatic Arts alumni 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors East Rockaway High School alumni