A high school teacher turned character actor, Michael Murphy began his collaboration with famed director Robert Altman on an episode of the 1960s TV series "Combat". He made the first of several appearances in Altman films in "Countdown" (1968). Among his other Altman credits are "M*A*S*H" and "Brewster McCloud" (both 1970), "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" (1971), "Nashville" (1975) and "Kansas City" (1996). In addition, Murphy portrayed a presidential candidate in Altman's satire of politics "Tanner '88" (HBO, 1988) and was the chief judge in Altman's "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" (CBS, 1988).
Murphy specializes in playing angst-ridden urban types, typified by his roles as cheating husbands in Paul Mazursky's "An Unmarried Woman" (1978) and Woody Allen's "Manhattan" (1979). His other film roles include a journalist in Peter Weir's "The Year of Living Dangerously" (1982), an ambassador in Oliver Stone's "Salvador" (1986), a cop tracking a serial killer in Wes Craven's "Shocker" (1989) and the mayor of Gotham City in Tim Burton's "Batman Returns" (1992).
Family
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Daughter: Maggie Murphy. born c. 1989; mother Wendy Crewson
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Father: Bearl Branton Murphy.
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Mother: Georgia Arlyn Murphy.
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Son: John Branton Murphy. born August 20, 1992; mother Wendy Crewson
Education
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University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Milestones
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1956 Served in US Marine Corps
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1962 TV acting debut Saints and Sinners
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1966 Stage acting debut in Los Angeles production of Take Her, She s Mine
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1967 Feature film acting debut Double Trouble
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1968 First collaboration with Robert Altman, Countdown
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1978 Stage directing debut, Rat s Nest
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1988 Starred as presidential candidate Jack Tanner in Altman s HBO series Tanner 88
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1992 Cast as the Mayor in Tim Burton s Batman Returns
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1997 Appeared in Private Parts the auto-biographical story of Howard Stern, the radio-rebel
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1997 Portryed the father of Olympic diver Greg Louganis in the TV movie Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story
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1999 Cast in Paul Thomas Anderson s Magnolia
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2002 Cast in HBO s Live From Baghdad based on CNN producer Robert Wiener s (Michael Keaton) memoirs of reporting on the 1991 Gulf War
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2004 Cast as Senator Judson Pilager in the political satire Silver City
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2006 Played Warren Worthington II, the father of Angel, in X-Men: The Last Stand
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2007 Cast in actress, Sarah Polley’s directorial debut “Away From Her”
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Taught English and drama in Los Angeles