Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy was born in Los Angeles, California, to Georgia Arlyn (née Money), a teacher, and Bearl Branton Murphy, a salesman.
After a hitch in the Marine Corps, Murphy attended the University of Arizona, Tucson, and
then went to U.C.L.A. for his California teaching credential. From 1962 to
1964, he taught high school English and drama in Los Angeles.Murphy's most notable appearance was as
Woody Allen's best friend Yale, the
self-tortured adulterer, in Allen's masterpiece
Manhattan (1979). The two had acted
together earlier in Martin Ritt's
The Front (1976) and had become good
friends. Surprisingly, despite the excellent performance Murphy gave in
the film, Allen hasn't used him again.Murphy's career as a first-rate supporting player began in 1962 and has continued for
over five decades, with major parts in
Paul Mazursky's
An Unmarried Woman (1978),
which he calls "the first of the whining yuppies,"
Peter Weir's
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982),
and Oliver Stone's
Salvador (1986). He also has worked with
such significant directors as Elia Kazan in
The Arrangement (1969),
Tim Burton in
Batman Returns (1992), and
Paul Thomas Anderson in
Magnolia (1999). Murphy
co-starred in John Sayles'
Silver City (2004), as a U.S. Senator
who is the father of a gubernatorial candidate played by Oscar-winner
Chris Cooper, standing-in for the
pre-presidential George W. Bush.Murphy is perhaps best known for his long collaboration with director
Robert Altman that stretches back to the beginning of his career."I was right out of the University of Arizona," Murphy reminisced
during a 2004 interview, "and a friend said, 'Go over to MGM and meet Bob Altman. He's using a lot of
young guys for this Army thing he's doing.'" Altman was directing the World War II
television series Combat! (1962), and Altman cast him in the show without an audition. "We became immediate friends.
He told me, 'You may not turn out to be a movie star, but you'll get to do some interesting work.'
Bob was in his thirties when we met. He had been a young bomber pilot in World War II and was wise beyond his years.
From the very beginning, he never played it safe when it came to making movies. He had amazing fortitude and guts."In addition to Combat! (1962) and the
Altman-directed TV movie
Nightmare in Chicago (1964),
Murphy has appeared in seven theatrical movies directed by Altman
between 1968 and 1996:
Countdown (1967),
That Cold Day in the Park (1969),
M*A*S*H (1970),
Brewster McCloud (1970),
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971),
Nashville (1975), and
Kansas City (1996). Murphy has also
appeared in Altman's TV adaptation of
Herman Wouk's play
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1988)
and in two cable-TV mini-series for him:
Tanner '88 (1988) and
Tanner on Tanner (2004).About Altman, Murphy says, "I adored the guy. If you were getting married
or divorced, or, really, if anything momentous was happening in your life, you'd want to seek him out
to talk about it. He was very strong when it came to life's dilemmas...could always see the big
picture...was always helpful. An extraordinary man."Murphy played the title role of Michigan Congressman Jack Tanner in
Altman's ground-breaking HBO series
Tanner '88 (1988), which was
scripted by Garry Trudeau of "Doonesbury"
fame. The fictional Tanner ran for president in the Democratic Party
primaries of 1988, alongside
George Bush (whom Murphy himself
"plays" in Silver City (2004)),
Michael Dukakis,
Al Gore, and
Pat Robertson, with some "guest
appearances" by Ronald Reagan
along the way. The "candidate" Tanner actually interacted on-camera
with candidates Gary Hart,
Bob Dole, and
Jesse Jackson, and with the
journalists Linda Ellerbee and
Chris Matthews.During the progress of the series' eleven episodes, Tanner increasingly
became alienated as the grueling political marathon went on. He was
portrayed as an intellectual troubled by sound-bite politics and the
public persona he was compelled to create for the media-fueled electoral
machine that vetted the candidates for the public at the other end of
the cathode-ray tube. Tanner eventually realizes he lacks the
all-consuming drive to be a successful presidential candidate under
such a system.A caustic look at American politics from a liberal-left-anarchist point
of view, "Tanner '88" won the prize for best television series at the
Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels in Cannes in the fall
of 1988. The mini-series ranks among the best and most important of
television programs. Altman-Murphy-Trudeau reprised Tanner with "Tanner
on Tanner" (2004), in which the character did not run but commented on
the political process and on the media circus accompanying the pursuit
for the nation's highest office.About the cable mini-series, Murphy says, "Yes, Bob shows some of the
nastiness behind all campaigns, but I don't think it's a polemic. In Bob's
case, you vote for the Democrat, but be careful of what you wish for.
He is very cynical."In 2019, Murphy's Jack Tanner found himself back on the silver screen in "Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese".
In this movie, Tanner gets to go to a Dylan concert at the behest of President Jimmy Carter...a mutual friend.Despite decades of solid performances in a plethora of movies, Murphy
remains somewhat anonymous to the public at large. Arriving in a limousine at
the 2004 Toronto Film Festival premiere of Silver City (2004), he got out of the
car and was unrecognized. When the publicists eventually realized he
was a star of the film, Murphy was ordered back into the limousine so
that he could exit it again, and the paparazzi could photograph him."I'm in this kind of fun position where I'm not especially recognizable," Murphy said when recounting the incident.
"This sometimes allows me to stand back and watch the circus...even though I'm a part of it it.
You wind up with an interesting perspective."In 1988, Michael Murphy married the co-star of his short-lived
television show Hard Copy (1987),
the actress Wendy Crewson. She has also
appeared with her husband in
Tanner '88 (1988) and in the
theatrical films Folks! (1992) and
Sleeping Dogs Lie (1998). They
have two children, a daughter, Maggie Murphy, born in 1989, and a son,
John ("Jack") Branton Murphy, born in 1992.