Murray Hamilton

Birthday: 1923-03-24
Deathday: 1986-09-01
Birthplace: Washington, North Carolina, USA
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Murray Hamilton (March 24, 1923 – September 1, 1986) was an American actor. He is best known for his role as Mayor Larry Vaughn in the 1975 film "Jaws" and its sequels, "Jaws 2" and "Jaws: The Revenge". Hamilton also starred in several other well-known films such as "The Graduate", "The Hustler" and "The Amityville Horror". He had a long career in both film and TV and appeared in over 70 films and TV series.

Early life

Hamilton was born in Washington, North Carolina. He displayed an early interest in performing during his days at Washington High School just before America's entry into World War II. Bad hearing kept him from enlisting, so he moved to New York City as a 19-year-old to find a career on stage.

Career

In an early role, he performed on stage with Henry Fonda in the wartime story Mister Roberts as a replacement for David Wayne, playing Ensign Pulver. In 1960, he was onstage again with Fonda in Critic's Choice; Howard Taubman of The New York Times called him "properly obnoxious as the director". Hamilton was teamed once more with Fonda in 1968 for the drama film The Boston Strangler.

Hamilton's best-known performance is as Larry Vaughn, the mayor of Amity, in the Steven Spielberg thriller Jaws (1975). Hamilton reprised the role in the sequel, Jaws 2 in 1978. He had agreed to reprise the role again in Jaws: The Revenge, but died in 1986, before production began. He was just 63 years old. Hamilton complained in a newspaper article about being typecast, stating "After I was first cast as a heavy on The Untouchables, I couldn't ever persuade them [producers] that I could also do something else." While comic roles were rare for Hamilton during his Hollywood career, he had one opposite Andy Griffith in the 1958 military comedy No Time for Sergeants, as well as an appearance in Steven Spielberg's raucous comedy 1941, released in 1979. He also appeared in a comedic guest spot on Mama's Family in the second-season episode "Mama Cries Uncle" as Uncle Roy. He was more often cast in dramatic works, such as the science-fiction drama Seconds (1966), which starred Rock Hudson. In his most high-profile performances, Hamilton appeared with Paul Newman in The Hustler (1961), playing Findley, a wealthy billiards player who gambles for high stakes, and with Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate (1967) as Mr. Robinson, husband of the seductress Mrs. Robinson. In 1975, Hamilton appeared again with Newman in The Drowning Pool. He also worked with Robert Redford in a pair of films, The Way We Were (1973) and Brubaker (1980). In early 1982 he appeared as a judge presiding over an impromptu court case on an episode of Bret Maverick. Death

Hamilton died of lung cancer at age 63, and is interred at Oakdale Cemetery in his native Washington, North Carolina. He and his wife, Terri DeMarco Hamilton (of The DeMarco Sisters), had a son, David. CLR

Credits

	Year	Title	Character
	1986-12-15	The Last Days of Patton	Gen. Hobart "Hap" Gay
	1986-05-06	Whoops Apocalypse	Jack 'Kill the Commies' Preston (Former US President)
	1984-09-28	Too Scared to Scream	Jack Oberman
	1983-04-11	Summer Girl	Jack Reardon
	1982-12-27	Mazes and Monsters	Lt. John Martini
	1982-12-22	Hysterical	The Mayor
	1981-12-21	All the Way Home	Joel Lynch
	1980-06-20	Brubaker	Deach
	1980-02-08	Swan Song	Jack McCauley
	1979-12-14	1941	Claude Crumn
	1979-07-27	The Amityville Horror	Father Ryan
	1979-01-19	A Last Cry for Help	Ralph Muir
	1979-01-07	Donovan's Kid	Henry Carpenter
	1978-06-16	Jaws 2	Mayor Larry Vaughn
	1978-01-01	Casey's Shadow	Tom Patterson
	1977-10-10	Killer on Board	Dr. Ned Folger
	1977-09-10	Damnation Alley	Gen. Landers
	1977-03-20	Murder at the World Series	Harvey Murkison
	1975-07-18	The Drowning Pool	Kilbourne
	1975-06-20	Jaws	Vaughn
	1974-12-10	After the Fall	Mickey
	1973-10-17	The Way We Were	Brooks Carpenter
	1973-03-20	Murdock's Gang	Harold Talbot
	1973-01-12	Incident on a Dark Street	Edmund Schilling
	1972-09-26	Deadly Harvest	Sheriff Bill Jessup
	1971-11-27	The Failing of Raymond	Sgt. Manzak
	1971-11-12	The Harness	Roy Kern
	1971-09-24	A Tattered Web	Sgt. Joe Marcus
	1971-03-26	Cannon	Virgil Holley
	1969-04-24	If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium	Fred Ferguson
	1968-12-01	The Brotherhood	Jim Egan
	1968-10-18	Danger Has Two Faces	Colonel Jack Forbes
	1968-10-08	The Boston Strangler	Det. Frank McAfee
	1968-03-20	No Way to Treat a Lady	Inspector Haines
	1968-02-01	Sergeant Ryker	Capt. Appleton
	1967-12-21	The Graduate	Mr. Robinson
	1967-11-11	A Bell for Adano	Sgt. Leonard Borth
	1966-10-05	Seconds	Charlie Evans
	1966-08-31	An American Dream	Arthur Kabot
	1965-11-18	Inherit the Wind	E.K. Hornbeck
	1963-12-12	The Cardinal	Lafe
	1963-04-18	13 Frightened Girls	Wally Sanders
	1963-03-06	Papa's Delicate Condition	Mr. Harvey
	1962-01-14	The Farmer's Daughter	Nordick
	1961-09-25	The Hustler	Findley
	1960-06-26	Escape to Sonoita	Marsh
	1960-04-06	Tall Story	Coach Sandy Hardy
	1959-10-01	The FBI Story	Sam Crandall
	1959-07-01	Anatomy of a Murder	Alphonse "Al" Paquette
	1958-11-19	Houseboat	Capt. Alan Wilson
	1958-07-05	No Time for Sergeants	Irving S. Blanchard
	1958-04-17	Too Much, Too Soon	Charlie Snow
	1958-02-12	Darby's Rangers	Sims Delancey
	1957-08-02	Jeanne Eagels	Chick O'Hara
	1957-04-01	The Spirit of St. Louis	Bud Gurney
	1956-11-08	The Big Slide	Chick Tolliver
	1956-10-26	The Girl He Left Behind	Sgt. Clyde
	1956-09-27	Toward the Unknown	Maj. Bromo Lee
	1951-08-02	The Whistle at Eaton Falls	Al Webster
	1951-08-01	Bright Victory	Pete Hamilton
	1944-11-01	Something for the Boys	Soldier (uncredited)
	1944-08-01	Reckless Age	Member of Soldier Quartet
	1944-06-21	Song of the Open Road	Crop Corps Kid (uncredited)