Murray Hamilton's birthday

101 years since the birth of character actor Murray Hamilton

Murray Hamilton 100 Years

 

March 24, 2023 marked 100 years since the birth of actor Murray Hamilton. 

Sadly, Murray left us in 1986, but decades of his work remain to showcase his talent and great hair. (Photo: If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium, released 1969).

Murray age 27 in Bright Victory (shot in 1950, released 1951):

Murray at 34 in Jeanne Eagels (1957):

Murray at 35 in The FBI Story (shot in 1958, released 1959):

Murray at 39 in Papa's Delicate Condition (filmed in 1962, released 1963), hiding his magic hair:

Murray at 47 in The Bold Ones: The Senator "Some Day, They'll Elect a President" (aired January 17, 1971):

Murray at 49 in Madigan "The Manhattan Beat" (aired September 20, 1971):

Murray at 54 reviving his character Mayor Larry Vaughn in Jaws 2 (shot in 1977 but released in 1978):

Murray at 55 in TV movie Donovan's Kid (aired January 7, 1979); the great hair is hidden but the giant mustache makes up for it:

Murray almost 61 on Mama's Family "Mama Cries Uncle;" aired on Murray's 61st birthday, March 24, 1984.

Forever my favorite, J. Hugh (In the book, he's Walter!) Kilbourne, The Drowning Pool, searching for his Gelusil tablets (!) Murray Hamilton at 51:

100 years since the birth of Murray Hamilton!

Perry Mason "The Case of the Deadly Double"

Murray Hamilton played a nightclub owner "very friendly" with a "dame" with a twist in the first season of Perry Mason. 

Murray Hamilton and fellow guest star Constance Ford were both 34 at the time this was filmed. Perry Mason, season 1, episode 24, "The Case of the Deadly Double" first aired March 1, 1958.

Murray Hamilton does his usual: wears a suit and tie, sits at a desk, smokes, looks awkward with a woman, retains his dignity being shorter than the other men, tries to cover his Southern accent and fails, makes those expressions you know from other performances, and has great hair. 

This being Perry Mason, Murray gets to do some courtroom drama, before he did "Anatomy of a Murder"

My favorite Murray Hamilton character performance being in "The Drowning Pool," I felt it here:

His "Graduate" style outburst, nearly a decade before:

No Way to Treat a Lady, the Murray Hamilton scenes

Another Murray Hamilton in a suit at a desk performance:

Age 44 during shooting in the summer of '67, MH plays Inspector Haines in homicide, which he always pronounces with a long O. [I can’t imagine Karl Malden shouting it into the phone that way every time he’d answer with “Homicide! Stone!” Even though Murray Hamilton appeared on “The Streets of San Francisco” as Stone’s former partner. That is an amazing hair episode!]

We first see him and his great hair sitting at a desk, smoking, being displeased with the situation.

Things you get to hear Murray Hamilton say:
“Then you didn’t state that he’s a sexual pervert?”  and “placate.”

In his second scene, he does his “little barrel” walk from the desk and reluctantly puts Segal back on the case. Almost looks like they're line dancing.

A few comments on the film “No Way to Treat a Lady”:

Rod Steiger is a joy to watch, no matter how awful his character is. 

Some viewers probably consider him a ham. My absolute favorite to watch is Jack Barrymore, so Rod Steiger is an absolute delight. Using a variety of disguises and accents, Steiger’s character goes around murdering women of a certain age. Horrible, absolutely horrible, but it's hard to hate this monster because it’s Rod Steiger, and he’s so much fun!

Top Steiger recommendation: As Joyboy, the embalmer, in “The Loved One.” 

Steiger later played the lead priest in “The Amityville Horror,” where he and Murray Hamilton have a scene together.

If you’re among those who first learned George Segal’s name as TV character “Jack Gallo” on “Just Shoot Me!” here’s a chance to see him in his early thirties. [He passed away fairly recently, March 23, 2021, just one day before what could have been Murray Hamilton’s 98^th birthday.]

Here Segal’s shoulder is just blocking my actual birthday on the calendar. You can see August 15th, but mine was the 17th.

“Miguelito Loveless” has a great scene in the film. Actor Michael Dunn comes in to confess to something he didn’t do.

David Doyle, “Mr. Bosley” to my generation, is among the cast.

 

A real “Hey, it’s that guy!” actor, Val Bisoglio, is just 41 in this film. He was born in 1926 and also passed just recently in October 2021 at 95. Oddly, this clearly Italian man is cast as an Irish cop.

Beautiful Lee Remick plays the female lead. Although she was in the same courtroom with Murray in “Anatomy of a Murder,” I’m not sure if that counts as having had a scene together.
 
The film also shows a lot of New York City in the summer of 1967.