Don Murray (actor)

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Don Murray (born Donald Patrick Murray on July 31, 1929, in Hollywood, California) is an American actor.

Before breaking into television and movies, he attended East Rockaway High School in Long Island, New York.

He had a long and varied career in TV and films, but is best known for his role as Sid Fairgate in the long-running prime time soap opera Knots Landing from 1979 to 1981, for which he also scripted two episodes ("Hitchhike" parts 1 & 2). He was nominated for an Academy Award as best supporting actor in Bus Stop with Marilyn Monroe. Planet of the Apes fans remember him as the ape-hating Governor Breck, from 1972's Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. He also directed a film based on the book The Cross and the Switchblade, starring Pat Boone and Erik Estrada (1970).

Murray also starred with Otis Young in the ground breaking ABC western "The Outcasts" featuring an interracial bounty hunter team in the post-Civil War West (1968-69). This was the first integrated action team on network TV.

Murray is known for holding strong moral principles and has made career decisions in line with his beliefs. He was a conscientious objector during the Korean War and, in the 1960s, wrote, directed, or starred in a number of films featuring heroes, especially priests, who worked to help the infirm and socially downcast. Examples of these films include Sweet Love, Bitter [1] (1967), The Hoodlum Priest [2] (1961), and The Cross and the Switchblade (starring Erik Estrada)[3] (1971) . Even his role on the salacious nighttime soap opera Knots Landing seemed tailored to his straight-arrow public persona. As Sid Fairgate, he was the community's seemingly lone upstanding citizen and frequently clashed with other, less morally centered characters, who mockingly called him "Saint Sid."

Some have even speculated that his Knots Landing character was killed off the show for being too dull. Murray himself has said he left the show to develop a sitcom for television, although other 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, especially just as a show was beginning to gain ratings momentum. The character's death came in the second episode of season three, following on from season two's literal cliffhanger in which Sid's car careened off a cliff. To throw viewers off and make them doubt the character would actually die, Murray was listed in the newly created opening credit sequence for season three; the character survived the plunge off the cliff (thus temporarily reassuring viewers), but died later in hospital. The memorable final shot of Sid showed him lying dead on an operating table, arms spread in a Christ-like position, perhaps referencing or poking fun at his character's "saintly" behavior.

Although he effectively distanced himself from Knots Landing after his screen 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 the late actress Hope Lange. They had two children, including actor Christopher Murray.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Murray_%28actor%29"
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