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.
Filmography · 104
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
1962 · Self
Murder, She Wrote
1984 · Wally Hampton
The Mike Douglas Show
1961 · Self
Twin Peaks
1990 · Bushnell Mullins
Golden Globe Awards
1944 · Self - Presenter
Wings
1990 · Dad
Matlock
1986 · Albert Gordon
Knots Landing
1979 · Sid Fairgate
Hotel
1982 · Sam Burton
What's My Line?
1950 · Self
The Philco Television Playhouse
1948
Studio One
1948 · Biondello
ABC Afterschool Special
1972 · Jack Karpinsky
The Wonderful World of Disney
1997 · Reporter
The Ed Sullivan Show
1948 · Self
Kraft Television Theatre
1947 · George
The Single Guy
1995 · Chip Bremley
Police Story
1973 · Jack Bonner
Playhouse 90
1956 · Randy Bragg
How the West Was Won
1977 · Anderson
Orson Welles' Great Mysteries
1973 · Jack Stanley
The Wonderful World of Disney
1954 · Justin Morgan
Soldier of Fortune, Inc.
1997 · White Dragon / John Ja...
The Outcasts
1968 · Earl Corey
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
1972 · Breck
Endless Love
1981 · Hugh
The Girl on the Late, Late Show
1974 · William Martin
Peggy Sue Got Married
1986 · Jack Kelcher
Bus Stop
1956 · Beauregard 'Bo' Decker
Made in Heaven
1987 · Ben Chandler
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951 · Mio
Tab Hunter Confidential
2015 · Self
Advise & Consent
1962 · Senator Brigham Anders...
Island Prey
2001 · Parker Gaits
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker
1991 · Self
Brand New Life
1989
Amy Prentiss
1974 · Connors
Mr. Headmistress
1998 · Reporter
Hollywood Uncensored
1987 · Self
Stillwatch
1987 · Sam Kingsley
Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen
1981 · Pimp
Justin Morgan Had a Horse
1972 · Justin Morgan
These Thousand Hills
1959 · Albert Gallatin 'Lat'...
Shake Hands with the Devil
1959 · Kerry O'Shea
Mistress
1987 · Wyn
Promise
2021 · Zacharias
License to Kill
1986 · Tom Fiske
Baby the Rain Must Fall
1965 · Deputy Sheriff Slim
I Am the Cheese
1983 · David Farmer
Cotter
1973 · Cotter
Ghosts Can't Do It
1989 · Winston
Marilyn, Her Final Secret
2022
From Hell to Texas
1958 · Tod Lohman
The Viking Queen
1967 · Justinian
Thursday's Child
1983 · Parker Alden
Deadly Hero
1975 · Edward A. Lacy
Radioactive Dreams
1986 · Dash Hammer
Return of the Rebels
1981 · Sonny Morgan
T.J. Hooker: Blood Sport
1986 · Senator Stuart Grayle
The Plainsman
1966 · Wild Bill Hickok
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood
1960 · Self
Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop
1980 · Sergeant Jack Leland
Quarterback Princess
1983 · Ralph Maida
The Boy Who Drank Too Much
1980 · Ken Saunders
Marilyn Monroe: Beyond the Legend
1986 · Self
A Hatful of Rain
1957 · Johnny Pope
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
1971 · Herb Shuttle
Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers
2017 · Self
Shurtleff on Acting
1994 · Self
If Things Were Different
1980 · Robert Langford
My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He?
1989 · Jack Karpinsky
Twentieth Century Fox: The First 50 Years
1997 · Self
Marilyn
1963 · archive footage
A Girl Named Sooner
1975 · Sheriff Phil Rotteman
Something in Common
1986 · Theo Fontana
The Stepford Children
1987 · Steven Harding
Rainbow
1978 · Frank Gumm
Norma Jean Alias Marilyn Monroe
1987 · archive footage
The Intruders
1970 · Sam Garrison
Marilyn despite herself
2012
One Man's Way
1964 · Norman Vincent Peale
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
1999 · Self
Crisis in Mid-Air
1979 · Adam Travis
One Foot in Hell
1960 · Dan Keats
A Touch of Scandal
1984 · Benjamin Gilvey
Marilyn Monroe: The Mortal Goddess
1994 · Self
The Sex Symbol
1974 · Sen. Grant O'Neal
The Borgia Stick
1967 · Tom Harrison
The Bachelor Party
1957 · Charlie Samson
Sweet Love, Bitter
1967 · David Hillary
Scorpion
1986 · Gifford Lease
The Hoodlum Priest
1961 · Father Charles Dismas...
The Taming of the Shrew
1950 · Biondello
Kid Rodelo
1966 · Kid Rodelo
Riots & Revolutions: Confronting the Times
2008 · Self
Hearts Adrift
1996 · Lloyd Raines
Fugitive Family
1980 · Peter Ritchie
Escape from East Berlin
1962 · Kurt Schröder
Internet Love
1998 · Self
Gold of Rio Bravo: Sheriff Kelly's Story
2025
Childish Things
1969 · Tom Harris
Marilyn Monroe: I Want to Be Loved
2010 · Self
Daughter of the Mind
1969 · Dr. Alex Lauder
A Man Is Ten Feet Tall
1955 · Axel Nordman