Hot and highly watchable.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | May 16, 2017 10:42 PM |
And still alive.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | May 16, 2017 11:15 PM |
He played gay (sorta) in "Advise and Consent" as a "straight" and married Utah Senator being blackmailed for a homo past. This being the '50's, the only alternative is for him to off himself.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | May 16, 2017 11:21 PM |
Advise & Consent has some unintionally comic moments, esp. the portly gay!
by Anonymous | reply 7 | May 16, 2017 11:26 PM |
He and Barbara Harris played Kathleen Turner's parents in Peggy Sue Got Married.
by Anonymous | reply 9 | May 17, 2017 11:25 AM |
Wonderful actor, very hot in his youth. Though he was never out of work, a bit of a mystery why his career didn't go much further in the 1950s. I wonder if playing a closeted weak gay in Advise and Consent somehow stained his rep even if Don wasn't gay?
His marriage to his Bus Stop co-star Hope Lange didn't last very long.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | May 17, 2017 11:54 AM |
Loads of info on his heyday and drop into near obscurity.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | May 18, 2017 3:00 AM |
Did he ever comment on working with Marilyn?
by Anonymous | reply 16 | May 18, 2017 3:04 AM |
I was surprised when he was killed off on KNOTS at the end of season 1.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | May 18, 2017 3:22 AM |
As a kid, I often confused him with Earl Holliman, because I wanted both to fuck me.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | May 18, 2017 3:58 AM |
He still looked hot when he played Brooks Shields' father in Endless Love.
I went to see it in 1981. I was still a teenager, what can I say?
by Anonymous | reply 21 | May 18, 2017 4:20 AM |
He's a good guy. Was a pacifist, or something like that. Stayed friends with wonderful Hope Lange after the divorce (they had a couple kids). About 30 years ago I saw him on the reference floor of the now-defunct Donnell library, NYC. Seemed pleasant.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | May 18, 2017 4:31 AM |
I actually saw him in a musical on stage. It was technically off-Broadway, though it was in that big house that the Phoenix Theatre played in in the 1950s.
The show was called Smith. Murray played an ordinary guy who is trapped in a musical, and the whole evening was a spoof of the genre. It was quite clever and entertaining, but it was too niche to run.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | May 18, 2017 4:52 AM |
I saw Murray and Hope Lange together in "Same Time, Next Year" on B'Way. I remember absolutely nothing about it.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | May 18, 2017 7:36 AM |
He was in some ABC Show about cowboys, one white, one black in the late 60's - cannot remember the name but I loved the show as a kid and they canceled it quick.
Shocker when he was killed off Knots - shows NEVER did the unexpected back then and there were no spoilers he was leaving. He stayed on good terms with the cast and showed as a joke when Michele Lee and Kevin Dobson's characters were marrying.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | May 18, 2017 9:16 AM |
Looked it up. Same Time was more than 15 years after they split.
Hope was in the ground-breaking TV movie That Certain Summer, as the wife of Hal Holbrook, who starts an affair with young Martin Sheen.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | May 18, 2017 9:20 AM |
[quote]I thought you were talking about the all female rock band Warpaint. Of course, now I see that you're nowhere near cool enough to have ever heard of them.
Knowing about the 15 year old "all female rock band Warpaint" constitutes as being "cool" in today's New York.
My how the city has fallen....
by Anonymous | reply 27 | May 18, 2017 10:21 AM |
wrong thread
by Anonymous | reply 28 | May 18, 2017 10:21 AM |
Can somebody explain to me how the fuck someone can post in the wrong thread? Is it human error? Or is it a fucked up database error?
by Anonymous | reply 29 | May 18, 2017 10:31 AM |
[quote] As a kid, I often confused him with Earl Holliman, because I wanted both to fuck me.
You would have had a better chance with Earl Holliman as he is a well known homosexualist.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | May 18, 2017 10:52 AM |
R29, I have posted in the wrong thread more than once.
I think it was the result of accidentally having more than one DL tab open. I often have 20+ open at once, so it comes as no surprise that I can get mixed up.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | May 18, 2017 11:03 AM |
He was too midwestern looking to be a star.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | May 18, 2017 12:06 PM |
Anyone else remember Happy Birthday Wanda June?
by Anonymous | reply 33 | May 18, 2017 12:42 PM |
What a gorgeous, athletic looking man when he was younger, and aged into a very fine silver fox.
Starring as a closeted gay man in Advise and Consent, probably damaged his career. Nice to know that Murray did manage to find steady work in Hollywood throughout the decades.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | May 18, 2017 12:45 PM |
Has anyone seen The Hoodlum Priest? Can it be as amazing and tawdry as it looks?
by Anonymous | reply 35 | May 18, 2017 12:53 PM |
He must be the only one of Marilyn's co-stars who is still alive.
I hate that cowboy character in BUS STOP though, so fucking annoying , as is Arthur O'Connell as his folksy mentor .....
by Anonymous | reply 36 | May 18, 2017 1:12 PM |
R25 "The Outcasts," 1968-1969
by Anonymous | reply 37 | May 18, 2017 2:43 PM |
That cowboy is kind of clueless. Murray is very good in Baby the Rain Must Fall, with Lee Remick and Steve McQueen.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | May 18, 2017 7:10 PM |
Yes, but McQueen was the lead there, Murray barely got a look in, but it was the new 60s era of Beatty, Redford etc. with a whole new raft of leading men.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | May 18, 2017 7:18 PM |
Don was in an awful movie with that great actress, Bo Derek, called "Ghosts Can't Do It". Received a Razzie Award for the worst film of the year. He must have needed the money.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | May 19, 2017 12:19 AM |
Thank you R37! Loved that show's look and music.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | May 19, 2017 12:32 AM |
I always liked him, too. He was hot and a great actor.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | May 19, 2017 12:36 AM |
Photo for the torment of r36. That is one tiny towel.
Good point about surviving Marilyn Monroe co-stars. Who else is still with us?
by Anonymous | reply 45 | May 19, 2017 12:41 AM |
Arthur O'Connell played the chaplain in The Poseidon Adventure, but I remember him better as the prying pharmacist in seventies Crest commercials.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | May 19, 2017 12:44 AM |
Does anyone remember why they killed Sid off in Knots Landing? I think I recall Don Murray wanting out of the show, which is a pity, because it really picked up steam after he left.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | May 19, 2017 12:50 AM |
I thought he was mediocre in "Bus Stop." A much better actor should have played that role, but it wasn't that easy finding a male co-star who would be eager to work with Marilyn Monroe; her unprofessionalism was legendary. Occasionally she would have a strong co-star (Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Laurence Olivier) but mostly she was paired with minor actors. She didn't like working with young, attractive men; she was so insecure that she preferred co-stars who were homely and/pr older, like Tom Ewell, Tommy Noonan and Yves Montand.
I head Rock Hudson was considered for (or offered) the role of Bo in "Bus Stop", but decided not to do it. I think he would have been great, but I guess he didn't want to go through what he knew he'd have to go through working with Monroe. Montgomery Clift was also offered the role, but he declined. Another person considered was Marlon Brando. I think it was the prospect of working with Marilyn Monroe that put them off, but Clift and Brando became friends of hers. She and Brando even had an affair.
Murray and Monroe didn't get along. He fell in love with Hope Lange, who was playing a young girl in the film, and that bothered Marilyn. I guess she wanted to be the only object of his lust. She had to slap him across the face with part of her costume and did it so hard it cut his eye. Murray mistakenly used the word "scaly" in a scene and Monroe told him it had been "a Freudian slip" because the scene had a sexual connotation. "You see," she continued, "you were thinking unconsciously of a snake. That's why you said 'scaly.' And a snake is a phallic symbol. Do you know what a phallic symbol is, Don?" Murray's reply: "Know what it is? Hell, I've got one!"
I thought Arthur O'Connell was perfect as old Virge. In fact, his was the best performance of the film. Virge was a heartbreaking character; at the end of the play he's alone and without a home, having nobly left Bo so that Bo can start his new life with Cherie and grow up and be a man. The play takes place entirely in a small town restaurans where everyone is waiting for the roads to clear due to a snowstorm so the buses can start running again. Once everyone had dispersed Virge is the only one left; the next bus thorough (Albuquerque; "I guess that's as good a place as any") won't be there until 8:00 and it will be three hours until then. The women are closing the restaurant and he asks if there's anyplace warm he can stay until the bus comes, but there isn't, unless he wants to try waking up the man at the hotel (" wouldn't wanta be any trouble"). So the lady who works there tells him "then I'm sorry mister, but you're just left out in the cold." She carries some garbage out and momentarily alone he says to himself "well...that's what happens to some people." Then he takes his guitar and quietly goes out into the cold, alone. Such a sad, moving scene. Too bad they didn't do it that way in the movie.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | May 19, 2017 1:24 AM |
Actually, Marilyn mostly just worked with sexless leading men in her first starring roles: David Wayne a couple of times, Tommy Noonan and Tom Ewell. But the casting was all appropriate to the roles they played in those films.
She then worked with Robert Mitchum on River of No Return and Joseph Cotten on Niagara, both handsome leading men, if very different types.
Bo in Bus Stop is an infantile and naive man-boy. Murray played him as written.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | May 19, 2017 2:06 AM |
Advise and Consent is "on demand"at TCM till May 23rd
by Anonymous | reply 50 | May 19, 2017 2:11 AM |
re: MM's surviving co-stars
Mitzi Gaynor was in "There's No Business Like Show Business" (which preceded "Bus Stop") and is still with us.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | May 19, 2017 2:32 AM |
"Bo in Bus Stop is an infantile and naive man-boy. Murray played him as written."
I think a better actor would have made him much more appealing.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | May 19, 2017 3:26 AM |
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
He played the central human villain.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | May 19, 2017 2:41 PM |
OK article. It blames his downfall on the Apes movie!
by Anonymous | reply 55 | May 20, 2017 3:05 PM |
Hatful of Rain with Eva Marie Saint.
They're both still alive. It would be great to see them together on a panel to talk about the film and Hollywood in the fifties.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | May 20, 2017 3:39 PM |
Chin cleft alert in r57.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | May 20, 2017 3:41 PM |
Odd interview where he addresses the camera the entire time.
He discusses Advise & Consent solely as a Washington DC film. No mention of the gay angle, maybe because he knows how antiquated it is.
One of the youtube commenters brings it up - and even cites the bear queen from the link at r7.
by Anonymous | reply 59 | May 20, 2017 3:53 PM |
R6 That still is not from the movie. Did they play it on stage?
by Anonymous | reply 60 | May 20, 2017 4:14 PM |
R57 Hint of a nice ass in photo.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | May 20, 2017 4:15 PM |
[quote]Don Murray.???
Is he the ass child of Robbie and Steve Douglas?
by Anonymous | reply 62 | May 20, 2017 4:22 PM |
R61: Check r14 for full ass.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | May 20, 2017 4:43 PM |
You sure ain't kidding R56, Otis Young is fine as fuck. His skin tone is beautiful...reddish/brown.
I have a new wanking fantasy. Ebony and Ivory. Murray and Young make for an extremely hot couple. Hmm, wonder if they hooked up after work?
by Anonymous | reply 64 | May 20, 2017 4:50 PM |
Isn't his son Chris gay? I thought I heard that back in the 80s.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | May 20, 2017 5:02 PM |
Not to derail the thread, but Otis Young is really stunning, especially with a light beard.
by Anonymous | reply 68 | May 20, 2017 5:21 PM |
R6, R60, that still is from "Hatful of Rain." I thought Don was awfully bland and boring and out of his element in that. His character was supposed to be in the throes of morphine addiction, but all he can muster is a wince and a hunch as if he ate bad tuna. I don't know why didn't just hire Ben Gazzara, who originated the role on Broadway. And co-star Tony Franciosa was his usual over-the-top, "Look at me, I'm METHOD ACTING!!" self. Awful. Only the consistently good Eva Marie Saint was the saving grace.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | May 20, 2017 5:25 PM |
Wasn't Shelley Winters in a Broadway production of Hatful of Rain at some point as well?
by Anonymous | reply 70 | May 20, 2017 5:30 PM |
R70, Yes, Shelley, Tony, and Ben were in A Hatful of Rain on Broadway.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | May 20, 2017 5:34 PM |
Thank you R67-R68. You have exceptional and diverse tastes. Otis Young is hot. Worthy of a temporary sidetrack from Don Murray's obviously worthy....Leo gorgeousness.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | May 20, 2017 5:47 PM |
I think Don Murray, with his tall, dark and handsome features would've done well in romantic comedies. But he seemed to have had a preference for serious, "prestige" pictures, which, frankly, he wasn't that good of a dramatic actor to pull off. He is just not convincing in his roles in Bus Stop, the Bachelor Party, One Man's Way, Advise & Consent, A Hatful of Rain, etc. He gives serviceable performances, but his co-stars tend to outshine him.
by Anonymous | reply 74 | May 20, 2017 5:58 PM |
Murray had a good run in the late fifties and early sixties, but then then new boys arrived, like Beatty, Redford, McQueen etc and he was basically finished in the movies, but being a stage actor and doing television kept him working.
No love for SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL or THESE THOUSAND HILLS, both 1959? THE HOODLUM PRIEST was good too, and of course his role in ADVISE AND CONSENT. He made a tatty British film in 1967: THE VIKING QUEEN,
by Anonymous | reply 76 | May 20, 2017 10:12 PM |
How is Advise and Consent as a film? Worth checking out?
I don't suppose anyone here has the read the novel? Is it sympathetic about the gay situation?
by Anonymous | reply 77 | May 20, 2017 11:44 PM |
R77. Allen Drury was a lifelong closet queen so, no, not particularly sympathetic.
by Anonymous | reply 78 | May 21, 2017 12:17 AM |
I agree with the blogger's assessment of Advise & Consent at R7. The film is a whirlwind of characters coming and going, a who's who parade of recognizable stars, and long scenes of dense dialogue and political machinations. But ultimately, all of this was its undoing. There are simply too many characters to care about anybody, and the ponderously ambitious script never really delivers. It was billed as a "political thriller," but there are no thrills in this talky, convoluted borefest.
by Anonymous | reply 79 | May 21, 2017 1:15 AM |
I always get "Advise and Consent" mixed up with "The Best Man," since they came out around the same time, are both about Washington politics, and both have Henry Fonda.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | May 21, 2017 5:05 AM |
The only actor from a Monroe film who is still around, beside Murray, is Jeremy Spencer, who played Olivier's son in Prince and the Showgirl. A few years later he had the nonspeaking part of the beautiful sinister young man in Roman Spring. He stopped acting at a very young age.
Re. Gazzara, he is smoking in A Rage to Live.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | May 21, 2017 7:06 AM |
Yes, r79, it is really overrated and does not stand the test of time by any measure. In the video at r59, Don Murray says the film is often considered Preminger's best, but I would put it several notches below Skidoo.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | May 21, 2017 1:30 PM |
But we don't know if Jeremy Spenser is still around, there is no current information on him. He was a child actor and had a good role in The Prince and the Showgirl, as well as acting with Kate Hepburn (Summertime) and Leigh (Roman Spring of Mrs Stone), Welles (Ferry to Hong Kong( etc. then he seems to have stopped acting. I presumed he was gay ...
by Anonymous | reply 83 | May 21, 2017 1:39 PM |
r77 seems typical of the new illiteracy, One only has to check to find out that Advise & Consent was a best-selling novel of the early 60s, so of course its not gay-friendly. The Murray character had a gay wartime fling in Hawaii and commits suicide when it is discovered. Preminger' 1962 film is famous for its depiction of a gay bar - the first in American films I think. Don reels back in horror when he walks in, and leaves his wartime buddy lying in the gutter. Its a key film of its era, before gay liberation in the 1970s.
by Anonymous | reply 84 | May 21, 2017 1:43 PM |
There are shades of sympathy and empathy in literature, r84. I don't see why why r77 should be considered part of this new illiteracy you bring up.
That said, the gay angle of the story definitely falls into the "bury your gays" trope.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | May 21, 2017 1:49 PM |
The gay bar scene is linked at the r7 review.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | May 21, 2017 2:01 PM |
The sleazy music in the fussy fat guy's apartment makes everything off kilter.
He is like a pimp, but I'm not sure if that's the right term. His "answering service" suggests something loftier yet skeezier at the same time.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | May 21, 2017 2:10 PM |
Two scenes from link above on TCM's site: the seedy gay's apartment and the underground gay bar.
by Anonymous | reply 88 | May 21, 2017 2:16 PM |
R81, please see R51.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | May 21, 2017 5:02 PM |
Actually, r84, consider yourself part of the new illiteracy. There were several depictions of gay bars in pre-Code Hollywood, long before Advise & Consent,notably the Clara Bow talkie Call Her Savage.
by Anonymous | reply 90 | May 21, 2017 5:02 PM |
It's all true!
Call Her Savage predates it by decades. This tumblr compares the gay bar in CHS to the one in Advise & Consent.
by Anonymous | reply 91 | May 21, 2017 5:10 PM |
As of 2013, Jeremy Spenser was alive. He was mentioned in the obit for his older brother David, who was also an actor and was gay. Their ancestry is partially Ceylonese.
by Anonymous | reply 93 | May 21, 2017 9:46 PM |
"seems typical of the new illiteracy"
You seem typical of the old illiteracy, since the book is less homophobic than the movie.
by Anonymous | reply 94 | May 22, 2017 3:53 AM |
Thank the Lord he left Knots Landing, Kevin Dobson was much better!
by Anonymous | reply 95 | May 22, 2017 3:58 AM |
Girly hands.
by Anonymous | reply 96 | May 22, 2017 3:59 AM |
Thank you, Trump^^^^^^^
by Anonymous | reply 97 | May 22, 2017 4:03 AM |
He has womans' hands, R97. He doesn't even look like a shoe in for a Portuguese butcher's son like a real mean who has big thick meat packing fingers.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | May 22, 2017 4:47 AM |
Or like the manumittor of a flesh denizen. Where are the digits of maleness, the baritone throb of swollen muscles? The eye-glint of unslakable lust?
by Anonymous | reply 99 | May 22, 2017 5:27 AM |
He was on the first episode of the new Twin Peaks tonight
by Anonymous | reply 100 | May 22, 2017 6:20 AM |
Was it good?
by Anonymous | reply 101 | May 22, 2017 7:45 AM |
Did anyone see this? Don Murray and DL regular Scott Baio played father and son alcoholics.
by Anonymous | reply 102 | May 22, 2017 11:26 AM |
He played opposite Piper Laurie as Judy Garland's father in this.
I have never seen it.
Did they make him gay as in real life?
by Anonymous | reply 103 | May 26, 2017 2:03 PM |
Don Murray thread from some time ago.
I kind of like how the older archived thread looks on my phone.
by Anonymous | reply 104 | May 26, 2017 2:51 PM |
R103 An embarrassment of riches!
Moosie Drier!
Rue McClanahan!
Michael Parks!
But I'm curious about that TV Guide -- where on earth would NBC be broadcasting on five major VHF channels?
by Anonymous | reply 105 | May 26, 2017 3:48 PM |
r103, I recall the movie hinting that the dad was gay but it's been years since I've seen it
by Anonymous | reply 106 | May 27, 2017 12:55 AM |
That Garland TV movie has incredible trainwreck potential.
The one with Judy Davis was excellent, so I'd like to see a seventies shitshow version.
Piper Laurie, though. She might elevate it too much.
by Anonymous | reply 107 | May 27, 2017 4:00 AM |
He is like Eddie Fisher without talent
by Anonymous | reply 108 | July 23, 2019 9:24 AM |
Don Murray turns 90 on July 31!
by Anonymous | reply 109 | July 23, 2019 12:58 PM |
Rainbow, starring Andrea McArdle as Judy Garland and Don Murray as her father.
Renee Z has been poring over the old tapes for inspiration.
by Anonymous | reply 110 | July 23, 2019 1:11 PM |
So long, Sid.
Knots Landing should be streaming. What’s the holdup on that?
by Anonymous | reply 111 | July 23, 2019 1:34 PM |