Fred MacMurray
Actor
Biography
Fred MacMurray (August 30, 1908 – November 5, 1991) was an American actor and musician. He was educated at Carroll College, Wisconsin, and played with a Chicago orchestra for more than a year. Then he joined an orchestra in Hollywood where he played, did some recording and played extra roles. He then joined a comedy stage band, California Collegians, and went to New York. There he joined "Three's A Crowd" revue on Broadway and on the road. After this show closed, he returned to California and worked in vaudeville. He played the vaudeville circuits and night clubs until cast for major role in "Roberta". Signed by Paramount in 1935.
MacMurray was raised in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin from the age of 5, eventually graduating from Beaver Dam High School (currently the site of Beaver Dam Middle School), where he was a 3-sport star in football, baseball, and basketball. Fred retained a special place in his heart for his small-town Wisconsin upbringing, referring at any opportunity in magazine articles or interviews to the lifelong friends and cherished memories of Beaver Dam, even including mementos of his childhood in several of his films. In "Pardon my Past" (1945), Fred and fellow GI William Demarest are moving to Beaver Dam, WI to start a mink farm.
Filmography
Double Indemnity
as Walter Neff 1944
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
as (in "Double Indemnity") (archive footage) 1982
The Caine Mutiny
as Lt. Thomas 'Tom' Keefer 1954
The Absent-Minded Professor
as Ned Brainard 1961
The Swarm
as Maj. Clarance Tuttle 1978
Remember the Night
as Jack Sargent 1940
The Shaggy Dog
as Wilson Daniels 1959
Pushover
as Paul Sheridan 1954
Son of Flubber
as Ned Brainard 1963
There's Always Tomorrow
as Clifford Groves 1956
Los Angeles Plays Itself
as Walter Neff in Double Indemnity (archive footage) 2004
Alice Adams
as Arthur Russell 1935
The Egg and I
as Bob MacDonald 1947
The Happiest Millionaire
as Anthony J. Drexel Biddle 1967
Above Suspicion
as Richard Myles 1943
The Trail of the Lonesome Pine
as Jack Hale 1936