Donald Patrick Murray (July 31, 1929 – February 2, 2024) was an American actor, screenwriter, and film director. His debut film role as Bo Decker in Bus Stop (1956), opposite Marilyn Monroe, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He subsequently had several major leading and supporting roles in films during the 1950s and '60s, including A Hatful of Rain (1957), Shake Hands with the Devil (1959, with James Cagney), One Foot in Hell (1960, with Alan Ladd), Advise & Consent (1962, with Henry Fonda and Charles Laughton), and Baby the Rain Must Fall (1965, with Steve McQueen and Lee Remick).
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.
Early life and education
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.
Career
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.thumb|200px|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. 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.
Retrospective
thumb|200px|Murray at the 2017 [[San Diego Comic-Con]]
In July 2014, a retrospective of Murray's films was held at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. He died at his home on February 2, 2024, at the age of 94.
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| 1956
| British Academy Film Awards
| Most Promising Newcomer to Film
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| 1994
| Daytime Emmy Awards
| Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special
| ABC Afterschool Special
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| 2009
| TV Land Awards
| Anniversary Award
| Knots Landing
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For his contributions to motion pictures, Murray has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6385 Hollywood Boulevard.