Don Murray

Murray also starred in several television series, notably as Earl Corey on The Outcasts (1968–69), Sid Fairgate on Knots Landing (1979–81), and Bushnell Mullins on Twin Peaks (2017). He also played a villain in the science-fiction film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and the father of Kathleen Turner's character in Peggy Sue Got Married (1986). His screenwriting credits include The Hoodlum Priest (1961), a biopic of Jesuit priest Dismas Clark he also starred in and co-produced. In 1970, he wrote and directed The Cross and the Switchblade, based on the life of evangelists David Wilkerson and Nicky Cruz.

Don Murray studied at American Academy of Dramatic Arts and East Rockaway High School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is film. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are Western. Distinctions recorded are star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.

• Name — Don Murray • Birth Name — Donald Patrick Murray • Born — 31 July 1929 • Birthplace — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Died — 2 February 2024 • Place of death — Goleta, California, U.S. • Education — American Academy of Dramatic Arts • Occupation — Actor, screenwriter, film director • Years Active — 1950–2001; 2017–2021 • Children — 5, including Christopher and Sean

Donald Patrick Murray was born in Los Angeles on July 31, 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 performer. Murray attended East Rockaway High School (class of 1947) in East Rockaway, New York, where he played football and was on the track team. He was a member of the student government and glee club, and joined the Alpha Phi chapter of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity. After graduating, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. Soon after graduating from the AADA, he made his Broadway debut as Jack Hunter in The Rose Tattoo (1951). A member of the Church of the Brethren, 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, Murray returned from Europe to the U.S. and acting. He starred alongside Mary Martin in the stage version of The Skin of Our Teeth. Upon seeing his performance in the play, director Joshua Logan cast him in 20th Century Fox's film adaptation of William Inge's play Bus Stop. • Illustration — With Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop (1956) Murray's role as Beauregard "Beau" Decker in Bus Stop (1956) marked his film debut. He starred alongside Marilyn Monroe, who played Cherie, the object of his desire. His performance as the innocent cowboy 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, Murray starred as reserved, married bookkeeper Charlie Sampson in The Bachelor Party. That same year he had one of his most successful roles, the morphine-addicted Korean War veteran Johnny Pope in the drama A Hatful of Rain. Despite director Fred Zinnemann's intention to cast Murray as the comical brother Polo, Murray insisted on playing the lead. The film was one of the first to show the effects of drug abuse on addicts and the people around them. Murray starred as a blackmailed United States senator in Advise & Consent (1962), a film version of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Allen Drury. The movie was directed by Otto Preminger and co-starred Henry Fonda and Charles Laughton. Murray co-starred with Steve McQueen in Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965) and played the ape-hating Governor Breck in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972). In 1976, Murray starred in the film Deadly Hero. In addition to acting, he directed a film based on the book The Cross and the Switchblade (1970). He starred with Otis Young in the ABC western television series The Outcasts (1968–69), featuring an interracial bounty hunter team in the post-Civil War West. In 1979, Murray starred as Sid Fairgate on the prime-time soap opera Knots Landing. He also scripted two episodes of the show in 1980. In 1981, Murray left the series after two seasons either to concentrate on other projects, or, according to some sources, 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 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 afterward in a hospital. Although he effectively distanced himself from the series after that, Murray contributed an interview segment for the 2005 reunion special Knots Landing: Together Again. On Broadway, Murray played the title role in the short-lived musical Smith, was a replacement for Ted Bessell in the original run of Bernard Slade's Same Time, Next Year, and starred in Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests. In 1977-78, he starred in the national US touring production of Neil Simon's California Suite. In 2017, 16 years after his last screen role, Murray came out of retirement to play Bushnell Mullins in the third season of Twin Peaks.

In July 2014, a retrospective of Murray's films was held at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. • Illustration — Murray at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con

In 1956, Murray married Hope Lange, with whom he co-starred in Bus Stop. They had two children, Christopher and Patricia. They divorced in 1961. In 1962, he married Elizabeth Johnson. They had three children, Colleen, Sean, and Michael. Murray was a lifelong member of the Democratic Party.

Murray lived in Goleta, California. He died at his home on February 2, 2024, at the age of 94.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1950 — Studio One — Biondello — Episode: "The Taming of the Shrew" • Kraft Television Theatre — George — Episode: "January Thaw" • 1952 — Booth — Episode: "Mr. Lazarus" • Lux Video Theatre — Jimmy — Episode: "Welcome Home, Lefty" • 1955 — Producers' Showcase — Henry Antrobus — Episode: "The Skin of Our Teeth" • The Philco Television Playhouse — Alex Nordman — Episode: "A Man Is Ten Feet Tall" • The Jane Wyman Show — Ken — Episode: "One Last September" • 1956 — The United States Steel Hour — Don — Episode: "Moment of Courage" • 1957 — Playhouse 90 — Bob Munson — Episode: "For I Have Loved Strangers" • 1959 — The DuPont Show of the Month — Billy Budd — Episode: "Billy Budd" • 1960 — Playhouse 90 — Randy Bragg — Episode: "Alas, Babylon" • 1968–69 — The Outcasts — Earl Corey — 26 episodes • 1972 — Disneyland — Justin Morgan — 2 episodes • 1973 — Police Story — Jack Bonner — Episode: "The Big Walk" • Orson Welles Great Mysteries — Jack Stanley — Episode: "The Power of Fear" • Love Story — Neil Kaplan — Episode: "The Roller Coaster Stops Here" • 1974 — Amy Prentiss — Connor — Episode: "The Desperate World of Jane Doe" • 1975 — Police Story — Sergeant Stiles — Episode: "Headhunter" • 1977 — How the West Was Won — Anderson — 3 episodes • 1979–81 — Knots Landing — Sid Fairgate — 34 episodes • 1986 — T.J. Hooker — Senator Stuart Grayle — Episode: "Blood Sport" • 1987 — Matlock — Albert Gordon — Episode: "The Billionaire" • Hotel — Sam Burton — Episode: "Controlling Interests" • 1989 — ABC Afterschool Special — Jack Karpinsky — Episode: "My Dad Can't Be Crazy... Can He?" • 1989–90 — Brand New Life — Roger Gibbons — 6 episodes • 1991 — Sons and Daughters — Bing Hammersmith — 6 episodes • 1993 — ABC Afterschool Special — Frank Morrow — Episode: "Montan Crossroads" • Murder, She Wrote — Wally Hampton — Episode: "Bloodlines" • 1995 — Wings — Dad — Episode: "Burnin' Down the House: Part 2" • 1996 — The Single Guy — Chip Bremley — Episode: "Distance" • 1998 — The Wonderful World of Disney — Reporter — Episode: "Mr. Headmistress" • 1999 — Soldier of Fortune, Inc. — John James / Colonel Quentin Shepherd — Episode: "White Dragon" • 2017 — Twin Peaks — Bushnell Mullins — 8 episodes

• Illustration — With Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop (1956) • Illustration — With Eva Marie Saint in A Hatful of Rain (1957) • Year — Title — Role • 1956 — Bus Stop — Beauregard "Bo" Decker • 1957 — The Bachelor Party — Charlie Samson • A Hatful of Rain — Johnny Pope • 1958 — From Hell to Texas — Tod Lohman • 1959 — These Thousand Hills — Albert Gallatin "Lat" Evans • Shake Hands with the Devil — Kerry O'Shea • 1960 — One Foot in Hell — Dan Keats • 1961 — The Hoodlum Priest — Father Charles Dismas Clark • 1962 — Advise & Consent — Senator Brigham Anderson • Escape from East Berlin — Kurt Schröder • 1964 — One Man's Way — Norman Vincent Peale • 1965 — Baby the Rain Must Fall — "Slim" • 1966 — Kid Rodelo — "Kid" Rodelo • The Plainsman — Bill "Wild Bill" Hickok • 1967 — Sweet Love, Bitter — David Hillary • The Viking Queen — Justinian • 1969 — Childish Things — Tom Harris • 1971 — Happy Birthday, Wanda June — Herb Shuttle • 1972 — Call Me by My Rightful Name — Doug • Justin Morgan Had a Horse — Justin Morgan • Conquest of the Planet of the Apes — Governor Breck • 1973 — Cotter — Cotter • 1975 — Deadly Hero — Lacy • 1981 — Endless Love — Hugh Butterfield • 1983 — I Am the Cheese — David Farmer • 1985 — Radioactive Dreams — Dash Hammer • 1986 — Peggy Sue Got Married — Jack Kelcher • Scorpion — Gifford Leese • 1987 — Made in Heaven — Ben Chandler • 1990 — Ghosts Can't Do It — Winston • 2000 — Internet Love — Unknown • 2001 — Island Prey — Parker Gaits • Elvis Is Alive — Unknown • 2021 — Promise — Zacharias

• Year — Title — Role • 1959 — Winterset — Mio • 1967 — The Borgia Stick — Tom Harrison • 1969 — Daughter of the Mind — Dr. Alex Lauder • 1970 — The Intruders — Sam Garrison • 1973 — The Girl on the Late, Late Show — William Martin • 1974 — The Sex Symbol — Senator Grant O'Neal • 1975 — A Girl Named Sooner — Sheriff Phil Rotteman • 1978 — Rainbow — Frank Gumm • 1979 — Crisis in Mid-Air — Adam Travis • 1980 — If Things Were Different — Robert Langford • The Boy Who Drank Too Much — Ken Saunders • Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop — Sergeant Jack Leland • Fugitive Family — Peter Ritchie • 1981 — Return of the Rebels — Sonny Morgan • 1983 — Thursday's Child — Parker Alden • Branagan and Mapes — Dan Branagan • Quarterback Princess — Ralph Maida • 1984 — License to Kill — Tom Fiske • A Touch of Scandal — Benjamin Gilvey • 1986 — Something in Common — Theo Fontana • 1987 — Stillwatch — Sam Kingsley • The Stepford Children — Steven Harding • Mistress — Wyn • 1996 — Hearts Adrift — Lloyd Raines • 1998 — Mr. Headmistress — Reporter