Fred MacMurray

Born: 30 August 1908
Where: Kankakee, Illinois
Died: 5 November 1991

MacMurray began his career while in high school as a saxophonist and big band vocalist. In 1928, he moved to Los Angeles where he worked in a car painting shop and as a Hollywood extra. The following year he made a record with George Olsen's Orchestra, and worked as an orchestra musician for silent films.

That year marked his film debut as an extra in Girls Gone Wild, but it was 1934 that he signed a contract with Paramount, and made his film acting debut in Friends of Mr. Sweeney.

In 1935 he achieved stardom with his first leading role in The Gilded Lily - a film which also marked the first of seven co-starring appearances with Claudette Colbert.

MacMurray became one of Hollywood's highest-paid actors by 1943, when his salary reached $420,000.

He gave some of his finest dramatic performances in Billy Wilder's film noir classic, Double Indemnity; then as a deceitful and cowardly Navy lieutenant in The Caine Mutiny; a crooked cop in Pushover; and a caddish, philandering executive in Wilder's The Apartment.

MacMurray revived his career in the 60s, starring as good-natured father figures in Disney comedies The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber.

In 1972, he returned to features for the last of his seven films with Disney, Charley and the Angel. Three years later he went into semi-retirement on his 2,300-acre California ranch where he raised Black Angus cattle.

1978 marked his last acting role in a feature, The Swarm