A True Film Star And Eventual Sitcom Dad.
By Taylor Neumann, ReMIND Magazine
Frederick Martin MacMurray was born on Aug. 30, 1908, in Illinois and spent most of his childhood growing up in Wisconsin. He played saxophone in local bands, which eventually led to him playing with the Gus Arnheim Orchestra in the early 1930s. He appeared on Broadway before signing with Paramount Pictures in 1934.
Soon MacMurray was appearing in many films with several illustrious costars, including Katharine Hepburn (Alice Adams, 1935), Barbara Stanwyck (Remember the Night, 1940), Errol Flynn (Dive Bomber, 1941), Marlene Dietrich (The Lady Is Willing, 1942) and Joan Crawford (Above Suspicion, 1943).
In 1943, MacMurray’s salary reached $420,000, making him the highest paid actor in Hollywood that year and the fourth highest paid person in the entire country. His best known film performance came in 1944 with director Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, again opposite Stanwyck. This was a departure from MacMurray’s usual “good guy” roles, with him playing an insurance salesman who plots with Stanwyck to murder her husband.
MacMurray continued to work on films prolifically during the ’40s and ’50s. In 1960, he again teamed up with Wilder for the unforgettable The Apartment, costarring with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine. MacMurray also starred in the popular Disney films The Shaggy Dog (1959), The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and Son of Flubber (1963).
In 1960, MacMurray moved to television with the lead role on a new series, My Three Sons, as widower Steven Douglas. Despite his many film roles, this would be the project he is most remembered for, as the show grew to be a huge hit and aired from 1960 to 1972. MacMurray had a clause in his contract stating that all of his scenes be shot in two monthlong blocks, leaving him free to make films and play his favorite activity, golf.
After the show ended in 1972, MacMurray settled into semi-retirement, living as one of the wealthiest actors in Hollywood due to having saved for many years — he was known for his frugality throughout his life. MacMurray made appearances in Greyhound commercials throughout the ’70s and gave his final film performance in 1978’s The Swarm.
MacMurray was married twice, first to Lillian Lamont in 1936, adopting two children with her before her death in 1953. The following year, he married actress June Haver, with whom he adopted another two children. They remained married until his death in November of 1991 from pneumonia.
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