DON Murray, who starred alongside Marilyn Monroe in the Oscar-nominated film Bus Stop, has died.
The legendary actor's death was confirmed by his son Christopher. Don was 94 years old.
The details surrounding the death of Murray have not been revealed, according to the New York Times.
Murray had a successful career starring in movies such as Twin Peaks, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Endless Love, and recurred on the prime-time soap opera Knots Landing.
Murray was born in Hollywood, California, on July 31, 1929, and was one of three children. Hailing from a family of entertainers, his father was a singer and dancer and his mother was a former Ziegfeld Girl.
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The family would move to Long Island, New York, where he was a football and track star all throughout high school.
After graduating in 1946, he set his sights on the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan, where he would work as a waiter while having small parts on television.
He got his first big role on Broadway in 1951, where he played a sailor in The Rose Tattoo.
Early on in his career, he focused on portraying roles in socially responsible themes.
“Don has become identified with what might be called social significance and ‘appeal to reason’ film dramas,” Cue magazine noted in 1961.
“He won’t play in a drama that glamorizes evil or glorifies violence. ‘I’m no nut on that,’ he says, ‘my pictures don’t have to carry a message — but they do have to say something.’"
His acting prowess was noted early in his career, as he caught the attention of famed reviewer Bosley Crowther, who cemented Murray as one to watch.
“With a wondrous new actor named Don Murray playing the stupid, stubborn poke and with the clutter of broncos, blondes, and busters beautifully tangled, Mr. Logan has a booming comedy going before he gets to the romance,” Bosley Crowther wrote for The New York Times.
“And the fact that she fitfully but firmly summons the will and strength to humble him — to make him say ‘please,’ which is the point of the whole thing — attests to her new acting skill.”
Murray earned an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for the film.
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SEVEN DECADES IN HOLLYWOOD
In 1956, during the production of his break-out movie, he married actress Hope Lange, who also starred in the film.
They had two children together but then divorced in 1961.
A year later, he would marry another actress named Elizabeth Johnson, known as Betty, and they would have three more kids.
Murray would go on to star in over 35 films, including 25 television movies, and earn credits for stage production, writing, directing, producing, and creating scores.
While working in television, one of his most notable roles was The Outcast, where he and Otis Young played post-civil war bounty hunters.
This was the first Western series to have a Black actor, Otis Young, co-star in it, making history during its 26-week run on the air.
At the time, it was criticized for how it depicted racial tensions. However, it would later be seen by many as a classic.
Despite concerns about the show, the actor's career would carry out long into the next century. His last film appearance was in the movie Promise in 2021.
However, when interviewing with the New York Times for his obituary in 2017, he revealed that what he was most proud of was the work he did with postwar refugees in barbed-wire camps in Italy.
In 1956, Murray and his then-wife, Lange, founded the Homeless European Land Program and bought 150 acres on the island of Sardinia.
The couple was able to secure financial aid from international agencies and charities, which allowed them to help 100 refugees leave the Italian camps.
On the new property, they were able to become a self-supporting community.
“They planted crops and built homes,” Murray said. “The town is still there, with children and grandchildren of the original refugees.”
