| Name | Fred MacMurray |
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| Caption | Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity (1944) |
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| Birth name | Fredrick Martin MacMurray |
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| Birth date | August 30, 1908 |
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| Birth place | Kankakee, Illinois,
United States |
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| Death date | November 05, 1991 |
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| Death place | Santa Monica, California,
United States |
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| Occupation | Actor |
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| Years active | 1929–1978 |
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| Spouse | Lillian Lamont (1936–1953; her death) 2 adopted children
June Haver (1954–1991; his death) twin daughters (adopted) |
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Frederick Martin "Fred" MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, from 1930 to the 1970s.
MacMurray is well known for his role in the 1944 film noir Double Indemnity directed by Billy Wilder, which he starred in with Barbara Stanwyck. Later in his career, he became better known as the paternal Steve Douglas, the widowed patriarch on My Three Sons, which ran on ABC from 1960–1965 and then on CBS from 1965–1972.
Early life and career
MacMurray was born in
Kankakee, Illinois to Frederick MacMurray and Maleta Martin, both natives of Wisconsin. When MacMurray was two years old the family moved to
Madison, Wisconsin and several years later settled in
Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where his mother had been born in 1880. He earned a full scholarship to attend
Carroll College in
Waukesha, Wisconsin. In college, MacMurray participated in numerous local bands, playing the
saxophone.
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. Before he signed on with Paramount Pictures in 1934, he had already appeared on Broadway in
Three's a Crowd (1930–31) with Sydney Greenstreet and alongside Bob Hope in the original production of Roberta (1933–34).
In his heyday, MacMurray worked with some of Hollywood's greatest names, including directors Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges and actors Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart and Marlene Dietrich. He played opposite Claudette Colbert in seven films, beginning with The Gilded Lily. He co-starred with Katharine Hepburn in Alice Adams and with Carole Lombard in four films, Hands Across the Table, The Princess Comes Across, Swing High, Swing Low and True Confession.
in Swing High, Swing Low (1937)]]
Usually cast in light comedies as a decent, thoughtful character (The Trail of the Lonesome Pine) and in melodramas (Above Suspicion 1943) and musicals (Where Do We Go from Here? 1945), MacMurray had become one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors; for 1943, when his salary reached $420,000, he was the highest-paid actor in Hollywood, and the fourth highest-paid American.
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
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.
MacMurray Ranch
In 1941 MacMurray purchased land in the
Russian River Valley in Northern California and established MacMurray Ranch where he spent his time when not making films and engaged in raising prize-winning
Aberdeen Angus cattle. In line with his wishes that the property's agricultural heritage be preserved it was sold in 1996 to
Gallo, which planted vineyards on it for wines that bear the MacMurray Ranch label. Haver and MacMurray's daughter Kate now live on the property (in a cabin built by her father) and is "actively engaged in Sonoma's thriving wine community, carrying on her family's legacy and the heritage of MacMurray Ranch."
Death
After suffering from
leukemia, MacMurray died from
pneumonia in 1991, aged 83 in
Santa Monica. He was buried in
Holy Cross Cemetery.
Biography
In 2007, Bearmanor Media published the first full-length biography of Fred MacMurray by author Charles Tranberg.
Influence
miniseries. Art by
Alex Ross.]]In 1939, artist
C.C. Beck used MacMurray as the initial model for the superhero character who became
Fawcett Comics'
Captain Marvel.
Awards
MacMurray was the first person honored as a
Disney Legend, in 1987.
Filmography
Features
Why Leave Home? (1929)
Tiger Rose (1929)
Grand Old Girl (1935)
The Gilded Lily (1935)
Car 99 (1935)
Men Without Names (1935)
Alice Adams (1935)
Hands Across the Table (1935)
The Bride Comes Home (1935)
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936)
Thirteen Hours by Air (1936)
The Princess Comes Across (1936)
The Texas Rangers (1936)
Champagne Waltz (1937)
Maid of Salem (1937)
Swing High, Swing Low (1937)
Exclusive (1937)
True Confession (1937)
Cocoanut Grove (1938)
Men with Wings (1938)
Sing You Sinners (1938)
Cafe Society (1939)
Invitation to Happiness (1939)
Honeymoon in Bali (1939)
Remember the Night (1940)
Little Old New York (1940)
Too Many Husbands (1940)
Rangers of Fortune (1940)
Virginia (1941)
One Night in Lisbon (1941)
Dive Bomber (1941)
New York Town (1941)
The Lady Is Willing (1942)
Take a Letter, Darling (1942)
The Forest Rangers (1942)
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
Flight for Freedom (1943)
No Time for Love (1943)
Above Suspicion (1943)
Standing Room Only (1944)
And the Angels Sing (1944)
Double Indemnity (1944)
Practically Yours (1944)
Where We Go from Here? (1945) – Bill Morgan
Captain Eddie (1945)
Murder, He Says (1945)
Pardon My Past (1945)
Smoky (1946)
Suddenly, It's Spring (1947)
The Egg and I (1947)
Singapore (1947)
On Our Merry Way (1948)
The Miracle of the Bells (1948)
An Innocent Affair (1948)
Family Honeymoon (1949)
Father was a Fullback (1949)
Borderline (1950)
Never a Dull Moment (1950)
A Millionaire for Christy (1951)
Callaway Went Thataway (1951)
Fair Wind to Java (1953)
The Moonlighter (1953)
The Caine Mutiny (1954)
Pushover (1954)
Woman's World (1954)
The Far Horizons (1955)
The Rains of Ranchipur (1955)
At Gunpoint (1955)
There's Always Tomorrow (1956)
Gun for a Coward (1957)
Quantez (1957)
Day of the Bad Man (1958)
Good Day for a Hanging (1959)
The Shaggy Dog (1959)
Face of a Fugitive (1959)
The Oregon Trail (1959)
The Apartment (1960)
The Absent-Minded Professor (1961)
Bon Voyage! (1962)
Son of Flubber (1963)
Kisses for My President (1964)
Follow Me, Boys! (1966)
The Happiest Millionaire (1967)
Charley and the Angel (1973)
The Swarm (1978)
Short subjects
Screen Snapshots: Art and Artists (1940)
Popular Science (1941)
Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 1 (1941)
Show Business at War (1943)
The Last Will and Testament of Tom Smith (1943) (narrator)
Screen Snapshots: Motion Picture Mothers, Inc. (1949)
References
External links
Fred MacMurray's Caine Mutiny Costume, Wisconsin Historical Society
Fred MacMurray at Disney Legends
MacMurray Ranch timeline (documents MacMurray's involvement with the ranch)
Literature on Fred MacMurray
Category:1908 births
Category:1991 deaths
Category:American film actors
Category:American television actors
Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery
Category:Deaths from leukemia
Category:Deaths from pneumonia
Category:20th-century actors
Category:Wisconsin Republicans
Category:California Republicans
Category:People from Kankakee, Illinois
Category:People from Dodge County, Wisconsin
Category:American people of Scottish descent
Category:Vaudeville performers
Category:People from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
