The phrase "tall, dark, and handsome" could have been coined to describe actor Fred MacMurray. Three inches over six feet, his physique inspired the build of comic books' heroic Captain Marvel. Many a moviegoer enjoyed the dramatic and comedic performances of the genial and popular actor, who could pass for their pal next door. Although he landed several great roles that had him playing a villainous or unflattering character, MacMurray himself was an amiable and charming sort who projected a warm image that endeared him to the public. So much so that he slipped right into the role of Douglas family patriarch on television's My Three Sons late in his career during the 1960s and early '70s, for a total of a dozen years.
Looking back on a career that saw him starring in now-classic movies like Double Indemnity in 1944, The Egg and I in 1947, and The Caine Mutiny in 1954, it's interesting to note that he did not start out to become an actor. His father was a violinist, and he, too, played the violin, as well as the saxophone and horn. He desired a career as a professional musician, which he pursued in 1926 by working in Vaudeville and traveling dance bands, blowing his saxophone and singing in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
MacMurray devoted more than 12 months to one outfit in Chicago before hooking up with another band in Hollywood, where he recorded. He also got his feet wet in the film industry with his first job as an extra. A stint with the California Collegians, a comedic band, followed. He traveled with the outfit to New York and worked in Three's a Crowd, gaining Broadway experience. When the revue folded he headed for the west coast again, finding employment in nightclubs and vaudeville before Paramount offered to put him in the movies in the mid-'30s.
MacMurray married for the first time in 1936. He and Lillian Lamont had a son, Robert, and a daughter, Susan. Lamont passed away in 1953, and the actor wed June Haver the following year. They adopted two daughters, Laurie and Kathryn. The marriage lasted until MacMurray passed away in 1991. He died of pneumonia. ~ Linda Seida, All Music Guide
Died: Nov 05, 1991 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California
Occupation: Actor
Active: '30s-'60s
Major Genres: Comedy, Drama
Career Highlights: The Apartment, Double Indemnity, Remember the Night
First Major Screen Credit: Alice Adams (1935)
Biography
Given that Fred MacMurray built a successful film career as the quintessential nice guy, it's rather ironic that some of his strongest and best-remembered performances cast him against type. While remaining known as a fixture of light comedies and live-action Disney productions, his definitive roles nonetheless were those which found him contemplating murder, adultery, and other villainous pursuits. Born August 30, 1908, in Kankakee, IL, MacMurray, the son of a concert violinist, was educated at a military academy and later studied at the Chicago Art Institute. His original goal was to become a professional saxophonist, and toward that aim he worked with a variety of bands and even recorded with Gus Arnheim. MacMurray's musical aspirations eventually led him to Hollywood, where he frequently worked as an extra. He later joined the California Collegians and with them played Broadway in the 1930 revue Three's a Crowd, where he joined Libby Holman on a duet of "Something to Remember Me By." He subsequently appeared in productions of The Third Little Show and Roberta.
The story behind MacMurray's return to Hollywood remains uncertain -- either a Paramount casting scout saw him on-stage, or he simply signed up with Central Casting -- but either way, he was under contract by 1934. At Paramount, he rose to fame in 1935's The Gilded Lily, a romantic comedy which pit him against Claudette Colbert. Seemingly overnight he was among the hottest young actors in town, and he quickly emerged as a favorite romantic sparring partner with many of Hollywood's leading actresses. After Katherine Hepburn requested his services for Alice Adams, MacMurray joined Carole Lombard in Hands Across the Table before reuniting with Colbert in The Bride Comes Home, his seventh film in 12 months. He kept up the frenetic pace, appearing in 1936's The Trail of the Lonesome Pine alongside Henry Fonda, reteaming with Lombard in The Princess Comes Across. After settling a contract dispute with Paramount, MacMurray again starred with Colbert in the 1937 swashbuckler Maid of Salem, one of the first films to move him away from the laid-back, genial performances on which he'd risen to success.
Along with Colbert, Lombard remained the actress with whom MacMurray was most frequently paired. They reunited in 1937's Swing High, Swing Low and again that same year in True Confession. After starring with Bing Crosby in Sing You Sinners, he also began another onscreen partnership with Madeleine Carroll in 1939's Cafe Society, quickly followed by a reunion in Invitation to Bali. While not the superstar that many predicted he would become, by the 1940s MacMurray had settled comfortably into his leading man duties, developing an amiable comic style perfectly suited to his pictures' sunny tone. While occasionally appearing in a more dramatic capacity, as in the Barbara Stanwyck drama Remember the Night, the majority of his pictures remained light, breezy affairs. However, in 1944 he and Stanwyck reunited in Billy Wilder's superb Double Indemnity, which cast MacMurray as a murderous insurance salesman. The result was perhaps the most acclaimed performance of his career, earning him new respect as a serious actor.
However, MacMurray soon returned to more comedic fare, appearing with Colbert in 1944's Practically Yours. After the following year's farcical Murder He Says, his contract with Paramount ended and he moved to 20th Century Fox, where he starred in the historical musical Where Do We Go From Here? His co-star, June Haver, became his wife in 1954. MacMurray then produced and starred in Pardon My Past, but after announcing his displeasure with Fox he jumped to Universal to star in the 1947 hit The Egg and I. During the 1940s and early '50s, he settled into a string of easygoing comedies, few of them successful either financially or artistically. His star began to wane, a situation not helped by a number of poor career choices; in 1950, he even turned down Wilder's classic Sunset Boulevard. In 1954, however, MacMurray returned to form in The Caine Mutiny, where he appeared as a duplicitous naval officer. As before, cast against type he garnered some of the best notices of his career, but this time he continued the trend by starring as a dirty cop in The Pushover.
Despite recent critical acclaim, MacMurray's box-office clout remained diminished, and throughout the mid-'50s he appeared primarily in low-budget action pictures, most of them Westerns. In 1959, however, he was tapped by Walt Disney to star in the live-action comedy The Shaggy Dog, which became one of the year's biggest hits. MacMurray appeared as a callous adulterer in Wilder's Oscar-winning 1960 smash The Apartment before moving to television to star in the family sitcom My Three Sons; a tremendous success, it ran until 1972. He then returned to the Disney stable to essay the title role in 1961's The Absent-Minded Professor and remained there for the following year's Bon Voyage and 1963's Son of Flubber. However, after two more Disney features -- 1966's Follow Me Boys and 1967's The Happiest Millionaire -- both flopped, MacMurray remained absent from the big screen for the rest of the decade, and only resurfaced in 1973 in Disney's Charley and the Angel. After a pair of TV movies, MacMurray made one last feature, 1978's The Swarm, before retiring. He died in Santa Monica, CA, on November 5, 1991. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Frederick Martin "Fred" MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a highly successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, starting in 1930 and extending into the 1970s.
In 1930, he recorded a tune for the Gus Arnheim Orchestra as a featured vocalist on All I Want Is Just One Girl on the Victor 78 label.[1] Before he signed on with Paramount Pictures in 1934, he appeared on Broadway in Three's a Crowd (1930–31) with Sidney Greenstreet and alongside Bob Hope in the original production of Roberta (1933–34). [2]
Despite being typecast as a "nice guy", MacMurray often said his best roles were when he was cast against type by Wilder. In 1944, he played the role of Walter Neff, an insurance salesman (numerous other actors had turned the role down) who plots with a greedy wife Barbara Stanwyck to murder her husband in Double Indemnity. Sixteen years later, he played Jeff Sheldrake, a two-timing corporate executive in Wilder's Oscar-winning comedy The Apartment, with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon. In another turn in the "not so nice" category, MacMurray played the cynical, duplicitous Lieutenant Thomas Keefer in 1954's The Caine Mutiny[3]
MacMurray's career got its second wind beginning in 1959, when he was cast as the father figure in a popular Disney comedy, The Shaggy Dog.[3]The 1960s saw him star in My Three Sons, which ran for 12 seasons, making it one of America's longest-running television series. Concurrent with My Three Sons, MacMurray stayed busy in films, starring in 1961 as Professor Ned Brainerd in Disney's The Absent-Minded Professor and in its sequel, Son of Flubber, in 1964. Having the clout of a major star, MacMurray had a provision in his "Sons" contract that all scenes in which he appeared be shot first. This freed him to pursue his film work and golf hobby.
He was considered one of the wealthiest and most frugal actors in the business. Studio co-workers noticed that even as a successful actor, MacMurray would usually bring a brown bag lunch to work, often including a hardboiled egg. According to his co-star on My Three Sons, William Demarest, MacMurray continued to bring dyed Easter eggs for lunch several months after Easter so as not to waste them. Friends and business associates jokingly referred to him as "the thrifty multimillionaire".
After the cancellation of My Three Sons in 1972, MacMurray made only a few more film appearances before retiring in 1978.
Personal life
MacMurray was married twice. He and his first wife, Lillian Lamont, were married on June 20, 1936, and they adopted two children. After Lamont died on June 22, 1953, he married actress June Haver the following year; he and Haver adopted two more children.
MacMurray Ranch
In the 1940s MacMurray established MacMurray Ranch, now a popular winery.
