Talented, tall, rangy, rugged, good looking Don Murray burst onto the silver screen in his first film role--the young, headstrong but inexperienced rancher Bo Decker in the 1956 Joshua Logan film version of William Inge's Tony nominated Best Play BUS STOP, starring Marilyn Monroe as the object of Don's ardent, unwanted (at first) affections.
Besides MM, Murray has worked with a host of stars in his almost 70-year-career
Murray came out of an over 15-year retirement from acting in 2017 (at age 88) to play Bushnell ''Battling Bud'' Mullins on the reboot of David Lynch's TWIN PEAKS
Murray celebrates his 93th Birthday on July 31st, 2023.
He has almost 100 film, TV and stage credits.
Murray and his 2nd wife (since 1962), actress Bettie Johnson Murray (KLUTE, THE PARALLAX VIEW)
Up next for Don? The western PROMISE for Joe Cornet.
He was the only child of Broadway dance director/stage manager Dennis Murray and former Ziegfeld performer Ethel Cook Murray and studied at New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Murray made his Broadway debut playing the U.S. Navy sailor Jack Hunter
in the original 1951 production of Tennessee Williams classic THE ROSE TATTOO with Maureen Stapleton and Eli Wallach
Murray also began working in live TV in the early 1950's (STUDIO ONE IN HOLLYWOOD, THE PHILCO TELEVISION PLAYHOUSE), before his auspicious big screen debut in BUS STOP.
Murray had a 6-year run as a major Hollywood leading man, before his star waned after giving one of his best performances as devoted family man, blackmail victim and Senate Foreign Relations Committee subcommittee chairman Sen. Brigham Anderson of Utah, whose political enemies use a past homosexual relationship against him in Otto Preminger's groundbreaking 1962 film version of the dramatic U.S. politics-set bestselling novel ADVISE AND CONSENT by Allen Drury.
Murray kept working in the late 1960's in lesser-budgeted movies and guest starring on episodic TV, as well as playing regular & recurring roles in 5 series.
He would occasionally play a character role in big studio films-Franco Zeffirelli's ENDLESS LOVE as Brooke Shields father, Francis Ford Coppola's PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED as Kathleen Turner's pop and Alan Rudolph's MADE IN HEAVEN as the paterfamilias of Kelly McGillis.
My Favorite Murray on Film and TV (in chronological order):
Bo Decker in BUS STOP, for which Murray was nominated for a Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor of 1956
Harried married man and future father Charlie Samson, Best Man-to-be of fellow bookkeeper Arnold Craig (Philip Abbott) in 1957's THE BACHELOR PARTY, from the writing and directing team of Paddy Chayefsky & Delbert Mann, who just 2 years earlier had both won Oscars for MARTY
Carolyn Jones as The Existentialist BACHELOR PARTY girl was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Morphine addicted Korean War vet Johnny Pope, husband of Eva Marie Saint, brother of Anthony Franciosa and son of Lloyd Nolan in Fred Zinnemann's 1957 film version of Michael V. Gazzo's Broadway play A HATFUL OF RAIN
Innocent, but hounded, ranch hand Tod Lohman in the 1958 Henry Hathaway
directed western FROM HELL TO TEXAS
Ambitious cowpoke/rancher/politician Lat Evans in another oater, 1959's THESE THOUSAND HILLS, based on A.B. Guthrie's novel and directed by Richard Fleischer, with a cast also including Richard Egan, Stuart Whitman and Lee Remick
My favorite Murray big screen performance: Kerry O'Shea, an Irish-American WWI vet-turned-Dublin medical student-turned- IRA guerrilla soldier in Michael Anderson's historical action drama SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL starring James Cagney
Dan Keats, a boozing ex-Confederate soldier and member of Alan Ladd's bank robbery gang in the 1960 sagebrush saga ONE FOOT IN HELL
Father Charles ''Dismas'' Clark of St. Louis, real-life creator of Dismas House, the first halfway house for ex-convicts, in the 1961 bio pic THE HOODLUM PRIEST
With doomed HOODLUM Keir Dullea
Murray (using the pseudonym Don Deer) also co-wrote and co-produced HOODLUM, based on the work of the Jesuit Priest who changed his name to that of The Good Thief from the Gospel of Nicodemus.
Straight-arrow Utah Senator Brigham Anderson, troubled and tortured by past indiscretions in 1962's all-star political drama ADVISE & CONSENT
Kurt Schroder, chauffeur to an East German Major, in the ripped-from-the-headlines 1962 thriller ESCAPE FROM EAST BERLIN with Christine Kaufmann
Minister & author Norman Vincent Peale in the 1963 bio pic
ONE MAN'S WAY
Deputy Sheriff Slim in 1965's BABY, THE RAIN MUST FALL with Steve McQueen and Lee Remick
The title role in the 1966 western KID RODELO from the Louis L'Amour bestseller
Wild Bill Hickok in the 1966 low-budget remake of THE PLAINSMEN--let's just say Don's no Gary Cooper
And Abby Dalton is no Jean Arthur, but, Guy Stockwell's 1966 Buffalo Bill Cody matches up well with the 1936's THE PLAINSMEN's BBC - a star powerless James Ellison
Tom Harrison, along with his wife Inger Stevens, pawns of The Syndicate in the 1967 TV movie THE BORGIA STICK
David Hillary, doomed jazz musician Richie Eagle Stokes' (Dick Gregory) former professor in the 1967 drama SWEET LOVE, BITTER, inspired by the life of Charlie Bird Parker
The Roman Justinian in THE VIKING QUEEN
His first regular boob tube role, as Earl Corey, ex-Confederate officer & slave owner, reluctantly teamed up with black ex-Union soldier & slave Jemal David (Otis Young) in the groundbreaking TV western THE OUTCASTS (ABC 1968-69)
Young was the first African-American to have a co-starring role in a TV western
ESP researcher Dr. Alex Laudner in the 1969 tele-film
DAUGHTER OF THE MIND with Ray Milland and Gene Tierney
Vacuum cleaner salesman Herb Shuttle in the 1971 film version of Kurt Vonnegut's play HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WANDA JUNE
The title role in Disney's JUSTIN MORGAN HAD A HORSE
Evil Governor Breck in 1972's CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Murray, Roddy McDowall and Hari Rhodes in CONQUEST
The title Sioux Indian, the boozing former rodeo clown COTTER
Sheriff Phil Rotteman in the acclaimed 1975 TV movie A GIRL NAMED SOONER
The completely bonkers NYC patrolman Officer Ed Lacy in the 1976 cult classic DEADLY HERO
Hugh, father of Brooke Shields and husband of Shirley Knight, in 1981's ENDLESS LOVE
Back on TV in a regular role: as used car dealer Sid Fairgate, husband of Michelle Lee, in the first 2 seasons of the prime time soap KNOT'S LANDING
After a alleged salary dispute, Murray's character was killed off at the start of KL's third season
Jack Kelcher, father of Kathleen Turner & Sofia Coppola and husband of Barbara Harris, in the 1986 fantasy comedy hit PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED
Don showing off his 1958 Edsel Pacer to Sofia
Steven Harding, one of the fathers of THE STEPFORD CHILDREN, with Barbara Eden as his wife and Randall Batinkoff and Tammy Lauren as the CHILDREN
Ben Chandler, father of Kelly McGillis, in in 1987's MADE IN HEAVEN
His recent comeback role, as head of Lucky 7 Insurance, former champion pugilist Bushnell ''Battling Bud'' Mullins on the reboot of TWIN PEAKS on Showtime
Also:
The title role in THE DUPONT SHOW OF THE MONTH's Billy Budd, Tom Harris in CHILDISH THINGS aka CONFESSIONS OF TOM HARRIS aka TALE OF THE COCK(!), Sam Garrison in 1970's THE INTRUDERS, William Martin in THE GIRL ON THE LATE, LATE SHOW, Sen. Grant O' Neal in THE SEX SYMBOL, Anderson on 3 episodes of HOW THE WEST WAS WON, Judy Garland's Father in RAINBOW, Sonny in RETURN OF THE REBELS, another father, that of teenage protagonist Adam Farmer/Paul Delmonte (Robert MacNaughton) in the 1983 film version of Robert Cormier's controversial young adult classic I AM THE CHEESE, Dash Hammer in RADIOACTIVE DREAMS, Winston in GHOST'S DO IT with Bo Derek and regular roles on 2 short-lived shows: A BRAND NEW LIFE with frequent co-star Barbara Eden (NBC 1989-90) and 1991's CBS comedy-drama SONS AND DAUGHTERS.
With Anne Francis in THE INTRUDERS
The all-star cast of THE GIRL ON THE LATE, LATE SHOW:
Murray, Ralph Meeker, Van Johnson, Cameron Mitchell, Joe Santos, Gloria Grahame, Laraine Stephens, Yvonne de Carlo and executive producer David Gerber
With Bo Derek in GHOSTS DO IT
With Eden and Jamie Farr in the popular 1981 TV movie
RETURN OF THE REBELS
Any film with 3 titles is doomed!
S & D Cast:
Lucie Arnaz, Lisa Blount, Murray, Scott Plank, Rick Rossovich and Peggy Smithhart
Murray's other film and TV credits include:
QUARTERBACK PRINCESS (as Helen Hunt's dad), THE PHILCO TELEVISION PLAYHOUSE, KRAFT THEATRE, STUDIO ONE IN HOLLYWOOD, THE UNITED STATES STEEL HOUR, WINTERSET, DuPONT's The Hasty Heart, PLAYHOUSE 90, ORSON WELLES' GREAT MYSTERIES, POLICE STORY, IF THINGS WERE DIFFERENT, THE BOY WHO DRANK TOO MUCH, CRISIS IN MID-AIR, THURSDAY'S CHILD, FUGITIVE FAMILY, 1984's LICENSE TO KILL, A TOUCH OF SCANDAL, 1986's SOMETHING IN COMMON, T.J. HOOKER, SCORPION, HOTEL, ABC AFTERSCHOOL SPECIALS, STILLWATCH, MATLOCK, MISTRESS, MURDER, SHE WROTE, THE SINGLE GUY, HEARTS ADRIFT, ISLAND PREY, SOLDIER OF FORTUNE INC., Tim Daly and Steven Weber's Dad on WINGS and more.
With Kathleen Noone in HEARTS ADRIFT
More on Murray:
A HATFUL OF RAIN stars Eva Marie Saint and Murray, with his 1st wife (from 1956 to 1961) actress Hope Lange
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