Matinee Classics - Murray Hamilton Biography & Filmography

Murray Hamilton ACTOR

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MURRAY HAMILTON BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

Murray Hamilton was born on March 24th, 1923 in Washington, North Carolina. He originally studied graphic design, however, he always had an interest in pursuing a career as an actor. In his late teen years he traveled to Los Angeles, California and found work at Warner Brothers Studio's as a messenger boy.

This job lead to working as an extra in a number of films. He then moved to New York City when he was given a chance to make his stage debut on Broadway in a production of, "Strange Fruit". After gaining some more experience as a stage actor in another production called, "Mister Roberts" which ran from 1948 through 1851, he began working in even more prominent stage roles such as, "Critic's Choice" (1960-1961) and "Absence of a Cello" (1964-1965).

Along with his stage work he had already broken into the film industry as well as added a variety of television credits to his resume. Over the course of his career he would appear in more than 150 episodes and TV series.

Some of his more well known film roles included, "Bright Victory" (1951), "The Girl He Left Behind" (1956), "Darby's Rangers" (1958) starring James Garner, "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959) starring James Stewart, George C. Scott, Ben Gazzara, Lee Remick and Arthur O'Connell, "The FBI Story" (1959) starring James Stewart and Vera Miles, "13 Frightened Girls" (1963), "The Cardinal" (1963) starring Tom Tryon and John Huston, "An American Dream" (1966), "The Graduate" (1967) starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, "Jaws" (1975) starring Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw, "The Drowning Pool" (1975) and "Brubaker" (1980) starring Robert Redford.

His television guest appearances included, "Perry Mason", "The Billy Rose Show", "Mr. Peepers", "You Are There", "Ponds Theater", "The Big Story", "Conflict", "Playhouse 90", 'Have Gun - Will Travel", "Gunsmoke", "Twilight Zone", "Men Into Space", "Love and Marriage", "Way Out", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Route 66", "Dr. Kildare", "The Fugitive", "Men at Law", "The FBI" and "Longstreet".

As his career progressed, he began to mostly focus on television work and when he was diagnosed with cancer, roles were even harder to come by. Some of his latest credits include the television series, "Cover Up" (1984), "Hail to the Chief" (1985), "The Golden Girls" (1986) and the television movies, "Boys in Blue" (1984) and "The Last Days of Patton" (1986).

Murray Hamilton married only once to Terri DeMarco in 1953 and they had one child and remained together until he passed away on September 1st, 1986 in Washington, North Carolina from respiratory arrest along with no longer able to being to fight off the cancer. His remains are interred at Oakdale Cemetery in Washington, North Carolina.