Theatre Register

George Murphy

Shows · George Murphy

Actor 1902–1992 On stage 19311933

George Lloyd Murphy (July 4, 1902 – May 3, 1992) was an American actor and politician. Murphy was a song-and-dance leading man in many big-budget Hollywood musicals from 1930 to 1952. He was the president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1944 to 1946, and was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1951. Murphy served from 1965 to 1971 as U.S. Senator from California, the first notable American actor to be elected to statewide office in California, predating Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, who each served two terms as governor. He is the only United States senator represented by a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

On stage 3 productions, 2 years

1931 Of Thee I Sing Music Box · Original · directed by George S. Kaufman 441 perf.
1931 Shoot the Works Theatre not recorded · Original · directed by Ted Healy 87 perf.
1933 Roberta New Amsterdam Theatre · Original · directed by Hassard Short 295 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Worked with more than once2 names

John Muccio 2 productions
Jack Ray 2 productions

Both names in the same cast list, more than once. It is not evidence of a partnership — a long-running company puts the same forty people together every night — but it is where one would start looking. 2 of these names are not links because we hold no record behind them; the name is set from the identifier and its punctuation may be wrong.

Also credited on1 work

Song and Dance

These come off the person record, which names a work and not a production. So we can say this name is attached to the work and we cannot say which staging, or in what capacity. For a composer or a writer that is the whole career we hold; there is no cast list to find them in.

In the literature8 passages

  • Direction : George Murphy; Producers : Paula Stone and Michael Sloane; Choreography : Louis Da Pron; Scenery : Rita Glover; Costumes : Odette Myrtil; Lighting : Uncredited; Musical Direction : Leon Leonardiebooks/Dietz, Dan/Complete Book of 1950s Broadway Musicals, The - Dan Dietz.txt
  • Cast: Lyda Roberti, Bob Hope, Fay Templeton, Tamara, George Murphy, Sydney Greenstreet, Ray Middleton, Fred MacMurrayebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • 62 . See George Murphy, with Victor Lasky, “Say… Didn’t You Used to Be George Murphy?” (New York: Bartholomew House Ltd., 1970), 257.ebooks/Magee, Jeffrey/Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater (Broadway Legacies) - Jeffrey Magee.txt
  • Murphy, George, with Victor Lasky. “Say… Didn’t You Used to Be George Murphy?” New York: Bartholomew House, 1970.ebooks/Magee, Jeffrey/Irving Berlin's American Musical Theater (Broadway Legacies) - Jeffrey Magee.txt
  • There was also a dance routine with Eleanor Powell and George Murphy and a dozen Dave Gould dancing girls that was to work up to a terrific climax in which Buddy Ebsen came whirling into a solo tap dance break—only Mr. Ebsen came to the broadcast wearing sponge-soled golf shoes instead of taps, so on the air the big climax was sixteen mea…ebooks/Willson, Meredith/And There I Stood with My Piccolo - Meredith Willson.txt
  • GAXTON, LOIS MORAN, GEORGE MURPHY, VICTOR MOORE in “OF THEE | SING” Top: VICTOR MOOREtheatre-pdfs/A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860-1985 (Blum).txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — actor — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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