Fred MacMurray
Encyclopedia
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
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

 Double Indemnity directed by Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...

, which he starred in with Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...

. Later in his career, he became better known as the paternal Steve Douglas, the widowed patriarch
Patriarch
Originally a patriarch was a man who exercised autocratic authority as a pater familias over an extended family. The system of such rule of families by senior males is called patriarchy. This is a Greek word, a compound of πατριά , "lineage, descent", esp...

 on My Three Sons
My Three Sons
My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...

, which ran on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 from 1960–1965 and then on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 from 1965–1972.

Early life and career

MacMurray was born in Kankakee, Illinois
Kankakee, Illinois
Kankakee is a city in Kankakee County, Illinois, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 25,561, and 26,840 as of a 2009 estimate. It is the county seat of Kankakee County...

 to Frederick MacMurray and Maleta Martin, both natives of Wisconsin. When MacMurray was two years old the family moved to Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

 and several years later settled in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
Beaver Dam, Wisconsin
Beaver Dam is a city in Dodge County, Wisconsin, United States, along Beaver Dam Lake and the Beaver Dam River. The population was 16,243 at the 2010 census, making it the second largest city in Dodge County, and the largest city fully located within the county. It is the principal city of the...

, where his mother had been born in 1880. He earned a full scholarship to attend Carroll College
Carroll College (Wisconsin)
Carroll University is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Presbyterian church located in Waukesha in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Carroll opened in 1846, two years before Wisconsin became a state...

 in Waukesha, Wisconsin
Waukesha, Wisconsin
Waukesha is a city in and the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, in the Upper Midwest region of the United States. The population was 70,718 at the 2010 census, making it the largest community in the county and 7th largest in the state. The city is located adjacent to the Town of Waukesha...

. In college, MacMurray participated in numerous local bands, playing the saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

.

In 1930, he recorded a tune for the Gus Arnheim
Gus Arnheim
Gus Arnheim was an early popular band leader. He is noted for writing several songs with his first hit being "I Cried for You" from 1923. He was most popular in the 1920s and 1930s...

 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
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 in 1934, he had already appeared on 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...

 in
Three's a Crowd (1930–31) and alongside Sydney Greenstreet
Sydney Greenstreet
Sydney Hughes Greenstreet was an English actor. He is best known for his Warner Bros. films with Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre, which include The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca .-Biography:...

 and Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

 in the original production of Roberta
Roberta
Roberta is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics and book by Otto Harbach. The musical is based on the novel Gowns by Roberta by Alice Duer Miller...

(1933–34).

In his heyday, MacMurray worked with some of Hollywood's greatest names, including directors Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...

 and Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges
Preston Sturges , originally Edmund Preston Biden, was a celebrated playwright, screenwriter and film director born in Chicago, Illinois...

 and actors Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...

, Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....

 and Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich
Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress and singer.Dietrich remained popular throughout her long career by continually re-inventing herself, professionally and characteristically. In the Berlin of the 1920s, she acted on the stage and in silent films...

. He played opposite Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert
Claudette Colbert was a French-born American-based actress of stage and film.Born in Paris, France and raised in New York City, Colbert began her career in Broadway productions during the 1920s, progressing to film with the advent of talking pictures...

 in seven films, beginning with The Gilded Lily
The Gilded Lily (1935 film)
The Gilded Lily is a 1935 film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Wesley Ruggles, and starring Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Ray Milland and C. Aubrey Smith...

. He co-starred with Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...

 in Alice Adams
Alice Adams (film)
Alice Adams, also known as Booth Tarkington's Alice Adams, is a 1935 romantic film made by RKO. It was directed by George Stevens and produced by Pandro S. Berman from a screenplay by Dorothy Yost, Mortimer Offner adapted by Jane Murfin from the novel, Alice Adams, by Booth Tarkington...

,
with Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre....

 in Above Suspicion
Above Suspicion
Above Suspicion is a 1995 suspense thriller written by William H. Macy, who also has a small role in the film. The film stars Christopher Reeve as a paralyzed police officer who plots to murder his unfaithful wife and her lover...

,
and with Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard
Carole Lombard was an American actress. She was particularly noted for her comedic roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s...

 in four films, Hands Across the Table
Hands Across the Table
Hands Across the Table is a 1935 American romantic screwball comedy film released by Paramount Pictures. It stars Carole Lombard as a manicurist looking for a rich husband and Fred MacMurray as a poor playboy, with Ralph Bellamy as a wealthy but handicapped ex-pilot...

,
The Princess Comes Across
The Princess Comes Across
Released by Paramount in 1936, The Princess Comes Across is a film starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray.-Plot:A mixture of screwball comedy and murder mystery, a Swedish princess with a secret and a concertina-playing band leader with a past board the liner Mammoth, bound for New York...

,
Swing High, Swing Low
Swing High, Swing Low (film)
Swing High, Swing Low is a 1937 American romantic musical film starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray.This is the second film adaptation, after The Dance of Life and before When My Baby Smiles at Me , of the popular Broadway play Burlesque, by George Manker Watters and Arthur Hopkins.-Cast:*...

and True Confession
True Confession
True Confession is a 1937 screwball comedy film starring Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, and John Barrymore. It was directed by Wesley Ruggles and based on the play Mon Crime, written by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil.-Plot:...

.


Usually cast in light comedies as a decent, thoughtful character (The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936 film)
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is a 1936 romance film based on the novel of the same name. It was directed by Henry Hathaway. It was the second full length feature film to be shot in three-strip Technicolor and the first in color to be shot outdoors, with the approval of the Technicolor Corporation...

) and in melodramas (Above Suspicion
Above Suspicion (1943 film)
Above Suspicion is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer spy drama film starring Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray as newlyweds who spy on the Nazis for the British Secret Service during their honeymoon, along with Basil Rathbone as a Nazi who pursues them. The screenplay by Keith Winter, Melville Baker, and...

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
Barbara Stanwyck
Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...

 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
The Apartment
The Apartment is a 1960 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray. It was Wilder's follow-up to the enormously popular Some Like It Hot and, like its predecessor, was a commercial and critical hit, grossing $25...

,
with Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...

 and Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...

. In another turn in the "not so nice" category, MacMurray played the cynical, duplicitous Lieutenant Thomas Keefer in 1954's The Caine Mutiny
The Caine Mutiny (film)
The Caine Mutiny is a 1954 American drama film set during World War II, directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Stanley Kramer. It stars Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray, and is based on the 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Herman Wouk The Caine Mutiny. The film...

.


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
The Shaggy Dog (1959 film)
The Shaggy Dog is a black and white 1959 Walt Disney film about Wilby Daniels, a teenage boy who is transformed into an Old English Sheepdog by an enchanted ring of the Borgias. The film was based on the story, The Hound of Florence by Felix Salten...

.
In the 1960s, he starred in My Three Sons
My Three Sons
My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...

,
which ran for 12 seasons, making it one of America's longest-running television series. Concurrent with My Three Sons, MacMurray stayed busy in films, starring in 1961 as Professor Ned Brainerd in Disney's The Absent-Minded Professor
The Absent-Minded Professor
The Absent-Minded Professor is a 1961 black-and-white Walt Disney Productions film based on the short story A Situation of Gravity, by Samuel W. Taylor....

and in its sequel, Son of Flubber
Son of Flubber
Son of Flubber is the 1963 black-and-white sequel to the Walt Disney children's movie comedy The Absent-Minded Professor , also starring Fred MacMurray as a scientist who has perfected a high-bouncing substance, Flubber that can levitate an automobile and cause athletes to bounce into the sky...

,
in 1963. Using his star clout, MacMurray had a provision in his "Sons" contract that all his scenes be shot first. This freed him to pursue his film work and golf hobby. It's also interesting to note that two character names on "My Three Sons" were obviously nods to his real life children, that of Rob (as in Rob Douglas) and Katherine (Kate); he often referred to his TV son Robbie as 'Rob' and later TV daughter-in-law Katie Douglas as 'Kate.'
He was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

. He joined Bob Hope
Bob Hope
Bob Hope, KBE, KCSG, KSS was a British-born American comedian and actor who appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in radio, television and movies. He was also noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his numerous USO shows entertaining American military personnel...

 and James Stewart
James Stewart
James Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...

 to campaign for Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

 in 1968.

He was one of the wealthiest and, at the same time, most frugal actors in the business. Studio co-workers noticed that even as a successful actor, MacMurray usually brought a brown bag lunch to work, often with a hard-boiled egg. According to his co-star on My Three Sons, William Demarest
William Demarest
Carl William Demarest was an American character actor. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles.-Early life and career:...

, MacMurray continued to bring dyed Easter eggs for lunch several months after Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...

 so as not to waste them. Friends and business associates jokingly referred to him as "the thrifty multimillionaire." After the cancellation of My Three Sons in 1972, MacMurray made only a few more film appearances before retiring in 1978.

In the 1970s, MacMurray did commercials for Trailways Bus. Towards the end of the decade, he also did a series of commercials for the Korean chisenbop
Chisenbop
Chisanbop or chisenbop is an abacus-like finger counting method used to perform basic mathematical operations. According to The Complete Book of Chisanbop by Hang Young Pai, chisanbop was created in the 1940s in Korea by Sung Jin Pai and revised by his son Hang Young Pai. It was brought to the U.S...

 math calculation program.

Personal life

MacMurray was married twice. He and his first wife, Lillian Lamont, were married on June 20, 1936, and they adopted two children, Susan (b. 1940) and Robert (b. 1946). After Lamont died on June 22, 1953, he married actress June Haver
June Haver
June Haver , was an American film actress. She is most well known as a popular star of 20th Century-Fox musicals in the late 1940s, most notably The Dolly Sisters with Betty Grable and John Payne and also for playing the 1920s Broadway actress Marilyn Miller in Look for the Silver Lining...

 the following year; he and Haver adopted two more children, twins Katherine and Laurie (b. 1966). MacMurray suffered from throat cancer in the late 1970s and it reappeared in 1987; he also suffered a severe stroke at Christmas 1988 which left his right side paralyzed and his speech affected, although with therapy he was able to make a 90% recovery.

MacMurray Ranch

In 1941 MacMurray purchased land in the Russian River Valley
Russian River (California)
The Russian River, a southward-flowing river, drains of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately , it is the second largest river flowing through the nine county Greater San Francisco Bay Area with a mainstem 110 miles ...

 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
Angus cattle
Angus cattle are a breed of cattle much used in beef production. They were developed from cattle native to the counties of Aberdeenshire and Angus in Scotland, and are known as Aberdeen Angus in most parts of the world....

. In line with his wishes that the property's agricultural heritage be preserved it was sold in 1996 to Gallo
E & J Gallo Winery
E & J Gallo Winery was founded in 1933 by Ernest Gallo and Julio Gallo in Modesto, California. E & J Gallo Winery is the largest exporter of California wines and is a large promoter of wines from Sonoma County.-History:...

, which planted vineyards on it for wines that bear the MacMurray Ranch label. Haver and MacMurray's daughter, Kate, now lives 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
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...

 for more than a decade, MacMurray died from pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

 in 1991, aged 83 in Santa Monica
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...

. He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery
Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City
Holy Cross Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery at 5835 West Slauson Avenue in Culver City, California, operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles....

.

Biography

In 2007, Bearmanor Media published the first full-length biography of Fred MacMurray by author Charles Tranberg.

Influence

In 1939, artist C.C. Beck used MacMurray as the initial model for the superhero character who became Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s...

' Captain Marvel
Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
Captain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...

.

Features

  • Why Leave Home? (1929)
  • Tiger Rose (1929)
  • Grand Old Girl (1935
    1935 in film
    -Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...

    )
  • The Gilded Lily
    The Gilded Lily (1935 film)
    The Gilded Lily is a 1935 film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Wesley Ruggles, and starring Claudette Colbert, Fred MacMurray, Ray Milland and C. Aubrey Smith...

    (1935)
  • Car 99 (1935)
  • Men Without Names (1935)
  • Alice Adams
    Alice Adams (film)
    Alice Adams, also known as Booth Tarkington's Alice Adams, is a 1935 romantic film made by RKO. It was directed by George Stevens and produced by Pandro S. Berman from a screenplay by Dorothy Yost, Mortimer Offner adapted by Jane Murfin from the novel, Alice Adams, by Booth Tarkington...

    (1935)
  • Hands Across the Table
    Hands Across the Table
    Hands Across the Table is a 1935 American romantic screwball comedy film released by Paramount Pictures. It stars Carole Lombard as a manicurist looking for a rich husband and Fred MacMurray as a poor playboy, with Ralph Bellamy as a wealthy but handicapped ex-pilot...

    (1935)
  • The Bride Comes Home
    The Bride Comes Home
    The Bride Comes Home is a 1935 comedy film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Wesley Ruggles, and written by Claude Binyon and Elisabeth Sanxay Holding.-Plot:...

    (1935)
  • The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
    The Trail of the Lonesome Pine (1936 film)
    The Trail of the Lonesome Pine is a 1936 romance film based on the novel of the same name. It was directed by Henry Hathaway. It was the second full length feature film to be shot in three-strip Technicolor and the first in color to be shot outdoors, with the approval of the Technicolor Corporation...

    (1936
    1936 in film
    The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon...

    )
  • Thirteen Hours by Air
    Thirteen Hours by Air
    Thirteen Hours by Air is a 1936 mystery film made by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen, and starred Fred MacMurray and Joan Bennett...

    (1936)
  • The Princess Comes Across
    The Princess Comes Across
    Released by Paramount in 1936, The Princess Comes Across is a film starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray.-Plot:A mixture of screwball comedy and murder mystery, a Swedish princess with a secret and a concertina-playing band leader with a past board the liner Mammoth, bound for New York...

    (1936)
  • The Texas Rangers
    The Texas Rangers (1936 film)
    The Texas Rangers is a 1936 action and Western film directed by King Vidor that starred Fred MacMurray and Jack Oakie. It was nominated for Best Sound at the 1936 Oscars....

    (1936)
  • Champagne Waltz (1937
    1937 in film
    The year 1937 in film involved some significant events, including the Walt Disney production of the first full-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.- Events :*April 16 - Way Out West premieres in the US....

    )
  • Maid of Salem
    Maid of Salem
    Maid of Salem is a 1937 film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Frank Lloyd, and starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.-Plot:It tells the story of a young girl in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692, who has an affair with adventurer...

    (1937)
  • Swing High, Swing Low
    Swing High, Swing Low (film)
    Swing High, Swing Low is a 1937 American romantic musical film starring Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray.This is the second film adaptation, after The Dance of Life and before When My Baby Smiles at Me , of the popular Broadway play Burlesque, by George Manker Watters and Arthur Hopkins.-Cast:*...

    (1937)
  • Exclusive (1937)
  • True Confession
    True Confession
    True Confession is a 1937 screwball comedy film starring Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, and John Barrymore. It was directed by Wesley Ruggles and based on the play Mon Crime, written by Georges Berr and Louis Verneuil.-Plot:...

    (1937)
  • Cocoanut Grove (1938
    1938 in film
    The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...

    )
  • Men with Wings
    Men with Wings
    Men With Wings is a 1938 Technicolor American starring Fred MacMurray, Ray Milland, and Louise Campbell. Donald O'Connor also has a small part as the younger version of MacMurray's character. The two would soon star in the film Sing You Sinners together along with Bing Crosby....

    (1938)
  • Sing You Sinners
    Sing You Sinners (1938 film)
    Sing You Sinners is a 1938 black-and-white American musical comedy film starring Bing Crosby, Fred MacMurray, Donald O'Connor, and Ellen Drew. The movie was written by Claude Binyon and directed by Wesley Ruggles...

    (1938)
  • Cafe Society (1939
    1939 in film
    The year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...

    )
  • Invitation to Happiness (1939)
  • Honeymoon in Bali
    Honeymoon in Bali
    Honeymoon in Bali is a 1939 American romantic comedy film. It is also known by the alternative title Husbands or Lovers and My Love For Yours.-Plot:...

    (1939)
  • Remember the Night
    Remember the Night
    Remember the Night is a 1940 American romantic comedy/drama Christmas film directed by Mitchell Leisen, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray...

    (1940
    1940 in film
    The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released....

    )
  • Little Old New York
    Little Old New York
    Little Old New York is a 1940 Fox history film directed by Henry King and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. The movie stars Alice Faye, Fred MacMurray and Richard Greene and is based on the play by Rida Johnson Young. The play opened on September 8, 1920 and starred Genevieve Tobin, Douglas Wood and...

    (1940)
  • Too Many Husbands
    Too Many Husbands
    Too Many Husbands is a 1940 romantic comedy film about a woman who loses her husband in a boating accident and remarries, only to have her first spouse reappear. The film stars Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray and Melvyn Douglas, and is based on the 1919 play "Home and Beauty" by W. Somerset Maugham...

    (1940)
  • Rangers of Fortune (1940)
  • Virginia (1941
    1941 in film
    The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...

    )
  • One Night in Lisbon (1941)
  • Dive Bomber
    Dive Bomber (film)
    Dive Bomber is a 1941 American propaganda film directed by Michael Curtiz. It is notable for both its Technicolor photography of pre-World War II United States Navy aircraft and as a historical document of the US in 1941, including the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, one of the best known World...

    (1941)
  • New York Town
    New York Town
    New York Town is a 1941 romantic comedy film directed by Charles Vidor and starring Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, Akim Tamiroff and Robert Preston...

    (1941)
  • The Lady Is Willing
    The Lady is Willing
    The Lady is Willing is a 1942 Columbia Pictures screwball comedy film starring Marlene Dietrich and Fred MacMurray, directed by Mitchell Leisen....

    (1942
    1942 in film
    The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:...

    )
  • Take a Letter, Darling
    Take a Letter, Darling
    Take a Letter, Darling is a 1942 comedy film directed by Mitchell Leisen. It was nominated for three Academy Awards; Best Cinematography, Best Score and Best Art Direction .-Cast:* Rosalind Russell - A.M...

    (1942)
  • The Forest Rangers
    The Forest Rangers (film)
    The Forest Rangers ia a 1942 adventure film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by George Marshall, and written by Harold Shumate, based on story by Thelma Strabel.-Cast:*Fred MacMurray as Don Stuart*Paulette Goddard as Celia Huston Stuart...

    (1942)
  • Star Spangled Rhythm
    Star Spangled Rhythm
    Star Spangled Rhythm is a 1943 all-star cast musical film made by Paramount Pictures during World War II as a morale booster. Many of the Hollywood studios produced such films during the war, generally musicals, frequently with flimsy storylines, and with the specific intent of entertaining the...

    (1942)
  • Flight for Freedom
    Flight for Freedom
    Flight for Freedom is a 1943 drama film directed by Lothar Mendes. Film historians and Earhart scholars consider Flight for Freedom an "a clef" version of the Amelia Earhart life story concentrating on the sensational aspects of her disappearance during her 1937 world flight.The film's ending...

    (1943
    1943 in film
    The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 3 - 1st missing persons telecast * February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films....

    )
  • No Time for Love
    No Time for Love (film)
    No Time for Love is a 1943 film directed by Mitchell Leisen, and starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White . Robert Usher spent the last twenty years of his life as a 'family brother' at New...

    (1943)
  • Above Suspicion
    Above Suspicion (1943 film)
    Above Suspicion is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer spy drama film starring Joan Crawford and Fred MacMurray as newlyweds who spy on the Nazis for the British Secret Service during their honeymoon, along with Basil Rathbone as a Nazi who pursues them. The screenplay by Keith Winter, Melville Baker, and...

    (1943)
  • Standing Room Only (1944
    1944 in film
    The year 1944 in film involved some significant events, including the wholesome, award-winning Going My Way plus popular murder mysteries such as Double Indemnity, Gaslight and Laura.-Events:*July 20 - Since You Went Away is released....

    )
  • And the Angels Sing
    And the Angels Sing
    And the Angels Sing is a classic example of a film musical written to capitalize on the title of a previously popular song; in this case Benny Goodman's 1939 number one hit song, "And the Angels Sing" by Ziggy Elman and Johnny Mercer, and sung by Martha Tilton although the song is not sung in the...

    (1944)
  • Double Indemnity (1944)
  • Practically Yours
    Practically Yours
    Practically Yours is a 1944 comedic film made by Paramount Pictures, directed by Mitchell Leisen, written by Norman Krasna, and starring Claudette Colbert and Fred MacMurray.-Plot:...

    (1944)

  • Where We Go from Here? (1945
    1945 in film
    The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....

    ) – Bill Morgan
  • Captain Eddie (1945)
  • Murder, He Says
    Murder, He Says
    Murder, He Says is a slapstick comedy film about a murderous rural family and the hapless pollster who becomes entangled in their hunt for a cache of money.-Plot:...

    (1945)
  • Pardon My Past (1945)
  • Smoky (1946
    1946 in film
    The year 1946 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*November 21 - William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives premieres in New York featuring an ensemble cast including Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell.*December 20 - Frank Capra's It's a...

    )
  • Suddenly, It's Spring
    Suddenly, It's Spring
    Suddenly, It's Spring is a 1947 comedy film directed by Mitchell Leisen. It stars Paulette Goddard and Fred MacMurray.-Cast:*Paulette Goddard as Mary Morely*Fred MacMurray as Peter Morely*Macdonald Carey as Jack Lindsay*Arleen Whelan as Gloria Fay...

    (1947
    1947 in film
    The year 1947 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 22 - Great Expectations is premiered in New York.*November 24 : The United States House of Representatives of the 80th Congress voted 346 to 17 to approve citations for contempt of Congress against the "Hollywood Ten".*November 25...

    )
  • The Egg and I
    The Egg and I (film)
    The Egg and I is a 1947 film directed by Chester Erskine, who co-wrote screenplay with Fred F. Finklehoffe, based on the book by Betty MacDonald.This comedy was such a hit with audiences, it spawned the Ma and Pa Kettle film series...

    (1947)
  • Singapore
    Singapore (1947 film)
    Singapore is a American romance film directed by John Brahm and starring Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner. The film was remade as Istanbul with the location moved to Turkey.-Plot:...

    (1947)
  • On Our Merry Way
    On Our Merry Way
    On Our Merry Way is an American comedy film, produced by Benedict Bogeaus and Burgess Meredith, and released by United Artists. At the time of its release, King Vidor and Leslie Fenton were credited with its direction, although the DVD lists John Huston and George Stevens, who assisted with one of...

    (1948
    1948 in film
    The year 1948 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Laurence Olivier's Hamlet becomes the first British film to win the American Academy Award for Best Picture.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :...

    )
  • The Miracle of the Bells
    The Miracle of the Bells
    The Miracle of the Bells is a 1948 film produced by RKO. It stars Fred MacMurray, Alida Valli, Frank Sinatra, and Lee J. Cobb. Directed by Irving Pichel, with a script by Quentin Reynolds and Ben Hecht.The film is based on a novel by Russell Janney....

    (1948)
  • An Innocent Affair (1948)
  • Family Honeymoon
    Family Honeymoon
    Family Honeymoon is a 1949 domestic comedy film made by Universal International Pictures, directed by Claude Binyon, and written by Dane Lussier, based on novel by Homer Croy...

    (1949
    1949 in film
    The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...

    )
  • Father was a Fullback
    Father was a Fullback
    Father was a Fullback is a 1949 black-and-white Twentieth Century Fox film based on a comedy by Clifford Goldsmith. The film is about a college American football coach and his woes...

    (1949)
  • Borderline
    Borderline (1950 film)
    Borderline is a 1950 American film directed by William A. Seiter.-Plot:Pete Ritchie runs a narcotics smuggling operation to the USA from Mexico, which the Los Angeles Police Department and the US federal government have unsuccessfully tried to stop...

    (1950
    1950 in film
    The year 1950 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 15 - Walt Disney Studios' animated film Cinderella debuts.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:*Ambush...

    )
  • Never a Dull Moment (1950)
  • A Millionaire for Christy (1951
    1951 in film
    The year 1951 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Sweden - May Britt is scouted by Italian film-makers Carlo Ponti and Mario Soldati-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:...

    )
  • Callaway Went Thataway
    Callaway Went Thataway
    Callaway Went Thataway is a 1951 American comedy film starring Fred MacMurray, Dorothy McGuire, and Howard Keel. It was written, directed, and produced by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama...

    (1951)
  • Fair Wind to Java
    Fair Wind to Java
    Fair Wind to Java is a 1953 American adventure film directed by Joseph Kane and starring Fred MacMurray, Vera Ralston, Robert Douglas and Victor McLaglen. An American sailor voyages to search for diamonds on a volcanic island but has to contend with mysteries, pirates and an exploding volcano....

    (1953
    1953 in film
    The year 1953 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*September 16 — The Robe debuts as the first anamorphic, widescreen CinemaScope film.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:A...

    )
  • The Moonlighter (1953)
  • The Caine Mutiny
    The Caine Mutiny (film)
    The Caine Mutiny is a 1954 American drama film set during World War II, directed by Edward Dmytryk and produced by Stanley Kramer. It stars Humphrey Bogart, José Ferrer, Van Johnson and Fred MacMurray, and is based on the 1951 Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Herman Wouk The Caine Mutiny. The film...

    (1954
    1954 in film
    The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...

    )
  • Pushover
    Pushover (film)
    Pushover is a film noir notable for being the first film to feature Kim Novak in a starring role. Directed by Richard Quine, the Columbia Pictures film also stars Fred MacMurray. It was adapted from two novels, The Night Watch by Thomas Walsh and Rafferty by William S...

    (1954)
  • Woman's World
    Woman's World (film)
    Woman's World, also known as A Woman's World, is a 1954 drama film about corporate America. Three men compete for the top job at a large company.-Plot:...

    (1954)
  • The Far Horizons
    The Far Horizons (1955 film)
    The Far Horizons is a 1955 Western directed by Rudolph Maté, starring Fred MacMurray, Charlton Heston, Donna Reed and Barbara Hale. An expedition led by Lewis and Clark is sent to survey the territory that the United States has just acquired in the Louisiana Purchase from France...

    (1955
    1955 in film
    The year 1955 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 3 - The musical Guys and Dolls, starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, debuts.* June 27 - The last ever Republic serial, King of the Carnival, is released....

    )
  • The Rains of Ranchipur
    The Rains of Ranchipur
    The Rains of Ranchipur is a 1955 film drama made by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Jean Negulesco and produced by Frank Ross from a screenplay by Merle Miller, based on the novel The Rains Came by Louis Bromfield. The music score was by Hugo Friedhofer and the cinematography by Milton R...

    (1955)
  • At Gunpoint (1955)
  • There's Always Tomorrow
    There's Always Tomorrow
    There's Always Tomorrow is a 1956 drama film made by Universal Pictures, directed by Douglas Sirk, starring by Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Joan Bennett. The screenplay was written by Bernard C...

    (1956
    1956 in film
    The year 1956 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 5 - The Ten Commandments opens in cinemas and becomes one of the most successful and popular movies of all time, currently ranking 5th on the list of all time moneymakers * February 5 - First showing of documentary films by...

    )
  • Gun for a Coward (1957
    1957 in film
    The year 1957 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 21 - The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opens.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue-Awards:...

    )
  • Quantez (1957)
  • Day of the Bad Man (1958
    1958 in film
    The year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....

    )
  • Good Day for a Hanging
    Good Day for a Hanging
    Good Day for a Hanging is a western concerning how a town views the upcoming hanging of a young man accused of murdering the sheriff during a robbery. Directed by Nathan H. Juran, it stars Fred MacMurray as the reluctant new sheriff and Robert Vaughn as the young man accused of the crime....

    (1959
    1959 in film
    The year 1959 in film involved some significant events, with Ben-Hur winning a record 11 Academy Awards.-Events:* The Three Stooges make their 190th and last short film, Sappy Bull Fighters....

    )
  • The Shaggy Dog
    The Shaggy Dog (1959 film)
    The Shaggy Dog is a black and white 1959 Walt Disney film about Wilby Daniels, a teenage boy who is transformed into an Old English Sheepdog by an enchanted ring of the Borgias. The film was based on the story, The Hound of Florence by Felix Salten...

    (1959)
  • Face of a Fugitive
    Face of a Fugitive
    Face of a Fugitive is a 1959 Western film directed by Paul Wendkos. It stars Fred MacMurray and Lin McCarthy and was based on the short story "Long Gone" by Peter Dawson, the nom de plume of Jonathan H. Glidden . Dawson was the author of 120 Western short stories and novelettes as well as 15 book...

    (1959)
  • The Oregon Trail (1959)
  • The Apartment
    The Apartment
    The Apartment is a 1960 American comedy-drama film produced and directed by Billy Wilder, and starring Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray. It was Wilder's follow-up to the enormously popular Some Like It Hot and, like its predecessor, was a commercial and critical hit, grossing $25...

    (1960
    1960 in film
    The year 1960 in film involved some significant events, with Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the top-grossing release in the U.S.-Events:* April 20 - for the first time since coming home from military service in Germany, Elvis Presley returns to Hollywood, California to film G.I...

    )
  • The Absent-Minded Professor
    The Absent-Minded Professor
    The Absent-Minded Professor is a 1961 black-and-white Walt Disney Productions film based on the short story A Situation of Gravity, by Samuel W. Taylor....

    (1961
    1961 in film
    The year 1961 in film involved some significant events, with West Side Story winning 10 Academy Awards.-Top grossing films : After theatrical re-issue- Awards :Academy Awards:* Atlantis, the Lost ContinentB...

    )
  • Bon Voyage!
    Bon Voyage! (1962 film)
    Bon Voyage! is a 1962 Walt Disney film directed by James Neilson and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company. Following their practice of the time, it was also issued as a comic book...

    (1962
    1962 in film
    The year 1962 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May - The Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards are officially founded by the Taiwanese government....

    )
  • Son of Flubber
    Son of Flubber
    Son of Flubber is the 1963 black-and-white sequel to the Walt Disney children's movie comedy The Absent-Minded Professor , also starring Fred MacMurray as a scientist who has perfected a high-bouncing substance, Flubber that can levitate an automobile and cause athletes to bounce into the sky...

    (1963
    1963 in film
    The year 1963 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* June 12 - Cleopatra starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton premieres at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City....

    )
  • Kisses for My President
    Kisses for My President
    Kisses for My President is a 1964 comedy directed by Curtis Bernhardt, starring Fred MacMurray and Polly Bergen. Leslie McCloud makes history when she is elected the first female President of the United States. However, her husband Thad McCloud is less enthusiastic.-Plot summary:The United States...

    (1964
    1964 in film
    The year 1964 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 29 - The film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is released....

    )
  • Follow Me, Boys!
    Follow Me, Boys!
    Follow Me, Boys! is a 1966 family film released through Walt Disney Pictures, based on the book God and My Country by MacKinlay Kantor. It was the last production released before Walt Disney died of lung cancer...

    (1966
    1966 in film
    The year 1966 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Animation legend Walter Disney, well known for his creation of Mickey Mouse, died in 15 December 1966 of acute circulatory collapse following a diagnosis of, and surgery for, lung cancer...

    )
  • The Happiest Millionaire
    The Happiest Millionaire
    The Happiest Millionaire is a 1967 musical film starring Fred MacMurray and based upon the true story of Philadelphia millionaire Anthony J. Drexel Biddle. The film received an Academy Award nomination for Costume Design by Bill Thomas. The musical song score is by Robert and Richard Sherman...

    (1967
    1967 in film
    The year 1967 in film involved some significant events. It is widely considered as one of the most ground-breaking years in film.-Events:* December 26 - The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour airs on British television....

    )
  • Charley and the Angel
    Charley and the Angel
    Charley and the Angel is a 1973 Disney family/comedy film set in an unidentified small city in the 1930s Depression-era Midwestern United States and starring Fred MacMurray in one of his final film appearances...

    (1973
    1973 in film
    The year 1973 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces his second wife, Barbara Blakely. Blakely would later marry actor/singer Frank Sinatra....

    )
  • The Swarm (1978
    1978 in film
    The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California....

    )


Short subjects

  • Screen Snapshots: Art and Artists (1940
    1940 in film
    The year 1940 in film involved some significant events, including the premieres of the Walt Disney classics Pinocchio and Fantasia.-Events:*February 7 - Walt Disney's animated film Pinocchio is released....

    )
  • Popular Science (1941
    1941 in film
    The year 1941 in film involved some significant events.-Events:Citizen Kane, consistently rated as one of the greatest films of all time, was released in 1941.-Top grossing films :-Academy Awards:...

    )
  • Hedda Hopper's Hollywood No. 1 (1941)
  • Show Business at War
    Show Business at War
    Show Business at War is a short film made in 1943 to tout the United States film industry's contribution to the war effort. Several studios collaborated on the production and approximately 70 stars, producers, directors and studio executives appeared in it....

    (1943
    1943 in film
    The year 1943 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 3 - 1st missing persons telecast * February 20 - American film studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor films....

    )
  • The Last Will and Testament of Tom Smith (1943) (narrator)
  • Screen Snapshots: Motion Picture Mothers, Inc. (1949
    1949 in film
    The year 1949 in film involved some significant events.-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:*Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, starring Bud Abbott and Lou Costello...

    )

External links

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