Brian Murray
Encyclopedia
Brian Murray is a South Africa
n actor
and theatre director. He was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame
in 2004.
Murray was born Brian Bell in Johannesburg
, the son of Mary Dickson (née
Murray) and Alfred Bell, a professional golfer. Murray made his Broadway
debut in the play All in Good Time in 1965. Two years later he was cast as one of the leads in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, earning the first of three Tony Award
nominations for his performance. Murray made his directorial debut with the 1973 revival of The Waltz of the Toreadors
. The TV Series The Irish R.M.
His directing credits include Hay Fever
(1985), Arsenic and Old Lace
(1986), Blithe Spirit
(memorable for marking Geraldine Page
's final appearance onstage, as Madame Arcati), and The Show Off (1992).
Murray's film credits include Bob Roberts
and City Hall
. On television he has appeared in Kojak
, Another World
, Law & Order: Criminal Intent
and 30 Rock
. In the 1970s and 1980s, he performed in a number of radio plays for Yuri Rasovsky
's award-winning National Radio Theater
.
Murray resides in New York City
. In 1998, he received the Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding body of work. His latest role is in My Dog Tulip
, scheduled for release in 2009.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and theatre director. He was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame
American Theatre Hall of Fame
The American Theatre Hall of Fame in New York City was founded in 1972. Earl Blackwell was the first head of the Executive Committee. In an announcement at a luncheon meeting on March 1972, he said that the new Theater Hall of Fame would be located in the Uris Theatre . James M...
in 2004.
Murray was born Brian Bell in Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
, the son of Mary Dickson (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....
Murray) and Alfred Bell, a professional golfer. Murray made his Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in the play All in Good Time in 1965. Two years later he was cast as one of the leads in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, earning the first of three Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
nominations for his performance. Murray made his directorial debut with the 1973 revival of The Waltz of the Toreadors
The Waltz of the Toreadors
The Waltz of the Toreadors [La Valse des toréadors] is a play by Jean Anouilh.Written in 1951, this farce is set in 1910 France and focuses on General Léon Saint-Pé and his infatuation with Ghislaine, a woman with whom he danced at a garrison ball some 17 years earlier. Because of the General's...
. The TV Series The Irish R.M.
His directing credits include Hay Fever
Hay Fever
Hay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Laura Hope Crews played the role in New York...
(1985), Arsenic and Old Lace
Arsenic and Old Lace (play)
Arsenic and Old Lace is a play by American playwright Joseph Kesselring, written in 1939. It has become best known through the film adaptation starring Cary Grant and directed by Frank Capra. The play was directed by Bretaigne Windust, and opened on January 10, 1941. On September 25, 1943, the...
(1986), Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit
Blithe Spirit is a comic play written by Noël Coward which takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark" . The play concerns socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to...
(memorable for marking Geraldine Page
Geraldine Page
Geraldine Sue Page was an American actress. Although she starred in at least two dozen feature films, she is primarily known for her celebrated work in the American theater...
's final appearance onstage, as Madame Arcati), and The Show Off (1992).
Murray's film credits include Bob Roberts
Bob Roberts
Bob Roberts is a 1992 film written and directed by Tim Robbins. It is a satirical mockumentary, chronicling the rise of Bob Roberts, a conservative politician who is a candidate for an upcoming United States Senate election...
and City Hall
City Hall (film)
City Hall is a 1996 film directed by Harold Becker. Al Pacino and John Cusack star as the Mayor of New York and his idealistic deputy mayor....
. On television he has appeared in Kojak
Kojak
Kojak is an American television series starring Telly Savalas as the title character, bald New York City Police Department Detective Lieutenant Theo Kojak. It aired from October 24, 1973, to March 18, 1978, on CBS. It took the time slot of the popular Cannon series, which was moved one hour earlier...
, Another World
Another World (TV series)
Another World is an American television soap opera that ran on NBC from May 4, 1964 to June 25, 1999. It ran for a total of 35 years. It was created by Irna Phillips along with William J...
, Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: Criminal Intent is an American police procedural television drama series set in New York City, where it was also primarily produced. Created and produced by Dick Wolf and René Balcer, the series premiered on September 30, 2001, as the second spin-off of Wolf's successful crime drama...
and 30 Rock
30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
. In the 1970s and 1980s, he performed in a number of radio plays for Yuri Rasovsky
Yuri Rasovsky
Yuri Rasovsky is an American award-winning writer and producer working in the field of radio drama in the United States....
's award-winning National Radio Theater
National Radio Theater
The National Radio Theater was a non-profit independent producer of radio plays created in Chicago by Yuri Rasovsky and Michelle M. Faith. Long affiliated with classical FM station WFMT, NRT was active from January 1973 to April 1986. Its programs were heard primarily over public radio stations...
.
Murray resides in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 1998, he received the Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding body of work. His latest role is in My Dog Tulip
My Dog Tulip
My Dog Tulip is an American independent animated feature film based on the 1956 memoir of the same name by J. R. Ackerley, BBC editor, novelist and memoirist. The film tells the story of Ackerley's fifteen-year relationship with his German Shepherd Queenie, who had had been renamed Tulip for the...
, scheduled for release in 2009.
Additional Broadway and off-Broadway acting credits
- SleuthSleuth (play)Sleuth is a 1970 play written by Anthony Shaffer. The play is set in the Wiltshire, England manor house of Andrew Wyke, an immensely successful mystery writer. His home reflects Wyke's obsession with the inventions and deceptions of fiction and his fascination with games and game-playing...
(1973) - DaDa (play)Da is a 1978 comedy play by Irish playwright Hugh Leonard.NOTE: Performed by the Queensland Theatre Company in Brisbane Australia in 1975....
(1978) - The Arcata Promise (1982)
- Noises OffNoises OffNoises Off is a 1982 play by English playwright Michael Frayn. The idea for it was born in 1970, when Frayn was standing in the wings watching a performance of Chinamen, a farce that he had written for Lynn Redgrave...
(1983) - A Small Family Business (1992)
- The Little FoxesThe Little FoxesThe Little Foxes is a 1939 play by Lillian Hellman. Its title comes from Chapter 2, Verse 15 in the Song of Solomon in the King James version of the Bible, which reads, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes." Set in a small town in Alabama in...
(1997) - Twelfth Night (1998)
- Uncle VanyaUncle VanyaUncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....
(2000) - The CrucibleThe CrucibleThe Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
(2002) - The RivalsThe RivalsThe Rivals, a play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, is a comedy of manners in five acts. It was first performed on 17 January 1775.- Production :...
(2004)
Movie roles
- The Angry SilenceThe Angry SilenceThe Angry Silence is a 1960 British drama film directed by Guy Green and starring Richard Attenborough. Screenwriter Bryan Forbes won a BAFTA Award and an Oscar nomination for his contribution...
(1960) - The League of GentlemenThe League of Gentlemen (film)The League of Gentlemen is a 1960 British crime film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick and Richard Attenborough. It was based on the 1958 novel by John Boland and adapted by Bryan Forbes, who also starred in the film...
(1960) - Voiced John Silver in Disney's Treasure PlanetTreasure PlanetTreasure Planet is a 2002 animated science fiction film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 27, 2002...
(2002) - Voiced Captain Pugh and Mr Blandish in My Dog TulipMy Dog TulipMy Dog Tulip is an American independent animated feature film based on the 1956 memoir of the same name by J. R. Ackerley, BBC editor, novelist and memoirist. The film tells the story of Ackerley's fifteen-year relationship with his German Shepherd Queenie, who had had been renamed Tulip for the...
(2009)
Radio drama
- A Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature....
(1977) - The Man of DestinyThe Man of DestinyThe Man of Destiny is an 1897 play by George Bernard Shaw. It was published as a part of Plays Pleasant, which also included Arms and the Man, Candida and You Never Can Tell. Shaw titled the volume Plays Pleasant in order to contrast it with his first book of plays, Plays Unpleasant....
(1978) - The Killer 1979
- MedeaMedeaMedea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children, Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of...
(1985) - The TempestThe TempestThe Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
(1985) - The Imaginary Invalid (1985)
- The Lady of the CamelliasThe Lady of the CamelliasThe Lady of the Camellias is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in 1848, and subsequently adapted for the stage. The Lady of the Camellias premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France on February 2, 1852. The play was an instant success, and Giuseppe Verdi immediately set...
(1985) - An Enemy of the PeopleAn Enemy of the PeopleAn Enemy of the People is an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen wrote it in response to the public outcry against his play Ghosts, which at that time was considered scandalous...
(1985) - Arms and the ManArms and the ManArms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin:"Arma virumque cano" ....
(1985) - Uncle VanyaUncle VanyaUncle Vanya is a play by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. It was first published in 1897 and received its Moscow première in 1899 in a production by the Moscow Art Theatre, under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski....
(1985)
Awards and nominations
- 2002 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (The Crucible, nominee)
- 2002 Drama Desk AwardDrama Desk AwardThe Drama Desk Awards, which are given annually in a number of categories, are the only major New York theater honors for which productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway compete against each other in the same category...
for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (The Crucible, nominee) - 2000 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Uncle Vanya, nominee)
- 1997 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (The Little Foxes, nominee)
- 1997 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (The Little Foxes, winner)
- 1992 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play (A Small Family Business, nominee)
- 1984 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Ensemble Work (Noises Off, winner)
- 1978 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play (Da, nominee)
- 1968 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, nominee)