Ken Murray

• Name — Ken Murray • Birth Name — Kenneth Abner Doncourt • Born — 14 July 1903 • Birthplace — New York City, New York, U.S. • Died — 12 October 1988 • Place of death — Burbank, California, U.S. • Occupation — Entertainer, author • Years Active — 1929–1983 • Spouse — Charlotte LaRose (m. 1923; div. 1926) • Children — 4

Murray was born in New York City to a family of vaudeville performers. Many sources incorrectly give his birth name as Don Court. He was raised believing he had an older brother, Joseph. According to Murray's autobiography, Life on a Pogo Stick, as a teenager he learned that Joseph was actually his father and the couple who he thought were his parents were in fact his grandparents. The family withheld the truth from Murray because Joseph, who was also a vaudevillian, did not want the public to know that he had a young son. Joseph had divorced Murray's mother and decided that his parents would provide a more stable life than he was able to as a traveling performer. Murray also wrote of his quest to find his mother in his later years.

Murray got his start in show business on the stage in the 1920s as a stand-up comedian. He performed his comedy act on the vaudeville circuit and in burlesque. Following efforts to establish himself in Hollywood in the late 1920s, he found success on the New York stage after appearing in Earl Carroll's Vanities on Broadway in 1935. In the 1940s, Murray became famous for his Blackouts, a racy Hollywood variety show featuring Marie Wilson (among others) staged at the El Capitan Theatre on Vine Street. The Blackouts played to standing-room-only audiences for 3,844 performances, ending in 1949. Later that year, the show moved to Broadway with Marie Windsor replacing Marie Wilson. It received devastating reviews (the revue was considered too ribald for more sophisticated New York audiences) and closed after six weeks. Murray revived the Blackouts on the Las Vegas stage in 1956. The show was a hit and ran for three years.

Throughout his career Ken Murray always admired bygone celebrities from the world of show business. In 1936 he noted the surprise comeback of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and hired them to join his traveling troupe of entertainers for personal appearances. Murray's gesture was well intentioned, but aVariety reviewer caught a Baltimore engagement and disapproved of Murray's handling: "Unfortunately boys aren't getting the spotlight they deserve. They're part of Murray's act and, with two brief exceptions, there's something in front of band [at] all times. To many, that old act has been mythical, especially in last year-and-half. Murray didn't even adequately explain band's background when intro'ing it. Comic should certainly take advantage of what he has in his own act." Murray also persuaded silent-film actress Mae Murray, long retired, to be interviewed as a guest on his radio show. In 1950 he returned the former Our Gang star Darla Hood to prominence, hiring her as a singer for his Blackouts stage revue and his television show. Murray was considered a Hollywood gadabout, friendly with most Hollywood celebrities. He often visited social affairs with his 16mm home-movie camera in hand. He began filming the footage to send back home to his grandparents in lieu of writing letters. His grandmother saved the footage, which featured Hollywood stars including Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Jean Harlow. Murray later assembled the footage in compilation films such as Hollywood Without Make-Up (1963). Footage filmed by Murray was used in several television specials, including Hollywood: My Home Town (1965) and the feature-length film Ken Murray's Shooting Stars. Murray's prominence on the social scene resulted in producer-director Ralph Staub hiring Murray to emcee some of the Screen Snapshots theatrical films for Columbia Pictures. These popular reels showed various personalities informally or semi-formally at parties, social functions, and fundraisers.

Murray made occasional appearances in motion pictures and television as a character actor. Murray produced and co-starred as "Smiling Billy Murray" in a 1953 film, The Marshal's Daughter, a western that featured his protégée Laurie Anders in the title role, her sole film performance. In 1962, Murray portrayed the top-hatted, cigar-chewing, drunken Doc Willoughby in John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance starring John Wayne and James Stewart, arguably his most memorable screen role. Paired off for most of the picture with Edmond O'Brien as an alcoholic newspaper editor, he drunkenly rolls over the gunshot corpse of villain Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin) with his boot, looks around offhandedly, and says "Dead" to the surrounding crowd of euphoric Mexicans. In 1965, Murray played a THRUSH financier and owner of a Caribbean casino in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. In 1966, Murray was cast as Melody Murphy in the Walt Disney film Follow Me, Boys! starring Fred MacMurray, Vera Miles and Kurt Russell.

Murray was married three times and had four children. He married vaudeville and burlesque performer Carlotta (Charlotte) La Rose in 1923. The couple appeared in vaudeville together and later divorced. On July 4, 1941, Murray married model Cleatus Caldwell at the home of actor Lew Ayres in Hollywood. Edgar Bergen served as Murray's best man. The couple had two sons before divorcing in September 1945. Murray married his third wife, Betty Lou Walters, in December 1948. The couple had two daughters and remained married until Murray's death on October 12, 1988, at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, aged 85. Murray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1724 Vine Street for his contribution to the radio industry. He was a Republican.

• Half Marriage (1929) - Charles Turner • Leathernecking (1930) - Frank • Ladies of the Jury (1932) - Spencer B. Dazy • Crooner (1932) - Peter Sturgis • Disgraced! (1933) - Jim McGuire • From Headquarters (1933) - Mac • You're a Sweetheart (1937) - Don King • Swing, Sister, Swing (1938) - Nap Sisler • A Night at Earl Carroll's (1940) - Barney Nelson • Swing It Soldier (1941) - Jerry Traynor • Juke Box Jenny (1942) - Malcolm Hammond • Bill and Coo (1948) - Ken Murray (Prologue) • Red Light (1949) - Himself • The Marshal's Daughter (1953) - 'Smiling Billy' Murray • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) - Doc Willoughby • Son of Flubber (1963) - Mr. Hurley • Hollywood Without Make-Up (1963) • Hollywood, My Home Town (1965) - Himself • Follow Me, Boys! (1966) - Melody Murphy • The Power (1968) - Grover • Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976) - Souvenir Salesman (final film role) • Ken Murray's Shooting Stars (1979, director)

Ken Murray is recorded as actor, film producer, autobiographer, writer and biographer.