Murray Hamilton (March 24, 1923 – September 1, 1986) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stage, screen, and television
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
who appeared in such memorable films as
The HustlerThe Hustler is a 1959 novel by American writer Walter Tevis, later made into a 1961 film of the same title. It tells the story of a young pool hustler, Edward "Fast Eddie" Felson, who challenges the legendary Minnesota Fats .-Plot summary:After losing to...
,
The GraduateThe Graduate is a American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols, based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay is by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as the hotel clerk...
and
JawsJaws may refer to the following:* Jaws, the two opposable structures of the mouth* Jaws , a novel by Peter Benchley* Jaws , the 1975 blockbuster thriller directed by Steven Spielberg based on this novel...
.
Born in
WashingtonWashington is a city in Beaufort County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 9,583 at the 2000 census. In 2006, it was estimated that the town population was 10,060. It is the county seat of Beaufort County...
in
Beaufort CountyBeaufort County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2000, the population was 44,958. Its county seat is Washington.-Geography:According to the U.S...
in eastern
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
, Hamilton displayed an early interest in performing during his days at Washington High School just before the outbreak of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Bad hearing kept him from enlisting, so he moved to
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
as a 19-year-old to find a career on stage.
In an early role, he performed on stage with
Henry FondaHenry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor, best known for his roles as plain-speaking idealists. Fonda's subtle, naturalistic acting style preceded by many years the popularization of method acting....
in the classic wartime story
Mister RobertsMister Roberts is a 1948 Tony Award-winning play based on the 1946 Thomas Heggen novel of the same name.The novel began as a collection of short stories about Heggen's experiences aboard the USS Virgo in the South Pacific during World War II...
.
Murray Hamilton (March 24, 1923 – September 1, 1986) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stage, screen, and television
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
who appeared in such memorable films as
The HustlerThe Hustler is a 1959 novel by American writer Walter Tevis, later made into a 1961 film of the same title. It tells the story of a young pool hustler, Edward "Fast Eddie" Felson, who challenges the legendary Minnesota Fats .-Plot summary:After losing to...
,
The GraduateThe Graduate is a American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols, based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay is by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as the hotel clerk...
and
JawsJaws may refer to the following:* Jaws, the two opposable structures of the mouth* Jaws , a novel by Peter Benchley* Jaws , the 1975 blockbuster thriller directed by Steven Spielberg based on this novel...
.
Born in
WashingtonWashington is a city in Beaufort County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 9,583 at the 2000 census. In 2006, it was estimated that the town population was 10,060. It is the county seat of Beaufort County...
in
Beaufort CountyBeaufort County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2000, the population was 44,958. Its county seat is Washington.-Geography:According to the U.S...
in eastern
North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
, Hamilton displayed an early interest in performing during his days at Washington High School just before the outbreak of
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Bad hearing kept him from enlisting, so he moved to
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
as a 19-year-old to find a career on stage.
Notable roles
In an early role, he performed on stage with
Henry FondaHenry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor, best known for his roles as plain-speaking idealists. Fonda's subtle, naturalistic acting style preceded by many years the popularization of method acting....
in the classic wartime story
Mister RobertsMister Roberts is a 1948 Tony Award-winning play based on the 1946 Thomas Heggen novel of the same name.The novel began as a collection of short stories about Heggen's experiences aboard the USS Virgo in the South Pacific during World War II...
. In 1960, he was seen onstage again with Fonda in
Critic's ChoiceCritic's Choice is a play written by Ira Levin.It opened at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on December 14, 1960 and ran for 189 performances, closing on May 27, 1961. Levin's inspiration was then-New York Herald Tribune drama critic Walter Kerr and his playwright wife Jean. Otto Preminger directed...
and was teamed once more with Fonda in 1968 for the gripping film drama
The Boston StranglerThe Boston Strangler is a 1968 film based on the true story of the Boston Strangler. It was directed by Richard Fleischer, and stars Tony Curtis as Albert DeSalvo, the strangler, and Henry Fonda as John S...
.
During the 1959-1960 television season, Hamilton co-starred with
William DemarestWilliam Demarest was an American character actor.-Early life and career:Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, he was a prolific film and television actor, having worked on over 140 films. He started in show business working in vaudeville, then moved on to Broadway. His film career began in 1926 and spanned...
,
Jeanne BalJeanne Bal was an American actress who worked primarily in 1960s television....
, and
Stubby KayeStubby Kaye was an American comic actor. He was born Bernard Kotzin in New York City on West 114th Street in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan to first generation Jewish-Americans originally from Russia and Austria...
in the
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
sitcom
Love and MarriageLove and Marriage is an 18-episode situation comedy which aired on NBC from September 21, 1959, to January 25, 1960, starring veteran film star William Demarest as William Harris, the owner of the nearly bankrupt Harris Music Publishing Company in Tin Pan Alley in New York City.Stubby Kaye ...
. He played
attorneyA lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person licensed to practice law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain stability, and deliver...
Steve Baker, who lived in an apartment with his wife (played by Bal), two daughters and father-in-law (portrayed by Demarest). The wife and her father worked for a failing music publishing company.
His most famous film performance is perhaps as the obdurate Amity Island Mayor Larry Vaughn in the
Steven SpielbergSteven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. In a career of over four decades, Spielberg's films have touched on many themes and genres. Spielberg's early sci-fi and adventure films, sometimes centering on children, were seen as an archetype of modern...
shark thriller
JawsJaws is a 1975 American horror/thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel Jaws. The police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant great white shark by closing the beach, only to be overruled by the town...
. Hamilton also appeared in its sequel
Jaws 2Jaws 2 is a 1978 horror thriller film and the first sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws . Directed by Jeannot Szwarc and starring Roy Scheider as Police Chief Martin Brody who must deal with another Great White Shark terrorizing the waters of Amity Island, a fictional seaside resort.Like the first...
and was signed on to reprise the role of Mayor Vaughn in a cameo for
Jaws: The RevengeJaws: The Revenge is a 1987 horror–thriller film directed by Joseph Sargent. It is the third and final sequel to Steven Spielberg's Jaws....
, but died before filming began.
Other notable big-screen appearances include the critically acclaimed
1959The year 1959 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bullfighters.*September 18 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx marries his second wife, Barbara Blakely....
film
Anatomy of a MurderAnatomy of a Murder is an American trial court drama film directed by Otto Preminger and written by Wendell Mayes based on the best-selling novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under the pen name Robert Traver. Traver based the novel on a 1952 murder...
with
James StewartJames Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart was an American film and stage actor, best known for his self-effacing persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
, in which he played the bartender Al Pacquette from Thunder Bay, Michigan who gives testimony in the murder of Barney Quill. He worked again with Stewart in
The FBI StoryThe FBI Story is a 1959 American drama film produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay by Richard L. Breen and John Twist is based on a book by Don Whitehead.-Plot:...
(1959) and
The Spirit of St. Louis (1957).
That same year, Hamilton made a memorable appearance on
Rod SerlingRodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter and television producer, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. He was known in the more secular community as being an atheist despite converting to Unitarianism...
's television series
The Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964 and remains syndicated to this day. The show consisted of unrelated vignettes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events, usually...
, starring in the episode "One for the Angels," playing Death.
Hamilton appeared in a
Perry MasonPerry Mason is an American TV series produced by Paisano Productions that ran from 1957 to 1966. Perry Mason was played by actor Raymond Burr. The title character is a fictional Los Angeles, California, defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
TV series episode "The Case of the Deadly Double" (air date March 1, 1958) as the shadowy boyfriend of a woman with a split personality whose brother was Mason's client on trial. It was one of dozens of TV guest appearances for the actor, whose much-later ones included the role of Big Daddy Hollingsworth, Blanche Deveraux's father, in a first season episode of
The Golden GirlsThe Golden Girls is an American sitcom that originally aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992. Starring Bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty, the show centers on four older women sharing a Miami, Florida home...
.
While comic roles were sometimes hard to come by, the actor's early Hollywood career included a very funny one opposite
Andy GriffithAndy Samuel Griffith is an American actor, director, producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer....
in the 1958 military comedy
No Time for SergeantsNo Time for Sergeants was a 1954 best-selling novel by Mac Hyman, which was later adapted into a popular Broadway play and 1958 motion picture, as well as a 1964 television series. The book chronicles the misadventures of a country bumpkin named Will Stockdale who is drafted into the U.S. Army...
. He was more often cast in dramatic works, such as the stark science-fiction drama
Seconds (1966), which starred
Rock HudsonRock Hudson was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1960s and 1970s, most notably in several romantic comedies with his most famous co-star, Doris Day...
.
In two of his most distinctive performances, Hamilton appeared in
The HustlerThe Hustler is a 1961 American drama film. It tells the story of small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson and his desire to prove himself the best player in the country by beating legendary pool player "Minnesota Fats." After initially losing to Fats and getting involved with unscrupulous...
(1961), playing Findley, a wealthy billiards player who gambles for high stakes, and in
The GraduateThe Graduate is a American comedy-drama film directed by Mike Nichols, based on the 1963 novel The Graduate by Charles Webb, who wrote it shortly after graduating from Williams College. The screenplay is by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, who makes a cameo appearance as the hotel clerk...
(1967) as Mr. Robinson, husband of
Anne BancroftAnne Bancroft was an American actress associated with the method school of acting.-Early life:Bancroft was born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano in the Bronx, New York, the daughter of Mildred , a telephone operator, and Michael Italiano, a dress pattern maker...
's Mrs. Robinson.
In 1975, Hamilton starred again with
Paul NewmanPaul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and auto racing enthusiast...
in
The Drowning PoolThe Drowning Pool is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, and based upon Ross Macdonald's novel The Drowning Pool. The film stars Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Anthony Franciosa, and is a sequel to Harper...
. He also worked with
Robert RedfordCharles Robert Redford Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American film director, actor, producer, businessman, model, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival...
in a pair of films, 1973's
The Way We WereThe Way We Were is a 1973 American romantic drama film directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay by Arthur Laurents was based on his college days at Cornell University and his experiences with the House Un-American Activities Committee....
and the 1980 prison drama
BrubakerBrubaker is an American 1980 film about a prison in distress and the Warden Henry Brubaker who attempts to reform the system....
.
For many years both before and during his film career, Hamilton was a prominent dramatic actor, earning a
Tony AwardThe Antoinette Perry Awards for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Awards, recognize achievement in live American theatre and are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are for Broadway productions and...
nomination for his role in the 1965 production of
Absence of a Cello.
His death was caused by
cancerCancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth , invasion , and sometimes metastasis...
. He is interred at Oakdale Cemetery in Washington, North Carolina.