Hapy 80th Birthday Don Murray

Born Donald Patrick Murray on July 31, 1929 in Hollywood, California, Murray attended East Rockaway High School in Long Island, New York where he played football and track, was a member of the student government and glee club and joined the Alpha Phi Chapter of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity. From high school he went on to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Murray had a long and varied career in film and television, but is perhaps best known for his role as Sid Fairgate in the long-running prime time soap opera “Knots Landing” from 1979 to 1981. He was nominated for an Academy Award as best supporting actor in “Bus Stop” (1956) in which he co-starred with Marilyn Monroe. He also played the ape-hating Governor Breck in 1972's “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes”. In addition to acting, Murray also directed a film based on the book “The Cross and the Switchblade”, starring Pat Boone and Erik Estrada in 1970, and scripted two episodes of Knots Landing in 1980. Murray also starred with Otis Young in the ground breaking ABC western television series "The Outcasts" featuring an interracial bounty hunter team in the post-Civil War West (1968-69). Murray was married to actress Hope Lange from 1956-1961. Don Murray appeared in one European Western “Kid Rodelo” in 1965. Today we celebrate his 80th birthday.