Film, television, and radio career of Audie Murphy
Audie Murphy (20 June 1925 – 28 May 1971) was a highly decorated American soldier and Medal of Honor recipient who turned actor.
For his cooperation in appearing in the United States Army's Broken Bridge episode of The Big Picture television series he was awarded the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal.
Murphy became a national celebrity following his World War II military service when Life magazine proclaimed him America's "most decorated soldier" in its 16 July 1945 issue cover story.
Murphy studied voice techniques, learned judo, and trained with choreographer John Boyle, Cagney's dance coach for Yankee Doodle Dandy.
[7] Her agent got Murphy a bit part in the 1948 Alan Ladd film Beyond Glory directed by John Farrow.
[14] Murphy performed well in the screen test, but Steve Broidy, president of the project's production company Allied Artists did not want to cast someone in a major role with so little acting experience.
He wrapped up that year making Sierra starring his wife Wanda Hendrix,[19] and Kansas Raiders as outlaw Jesse James.
He and director Budd Boetticher become acquainted through Terry Hunt's Athletic Club where Murphy would request to be his boxing partner.
He only worked one time with director Frederick de Cordova, who later became producer of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
[23] George Marshall directed Murphy in the 1954 Destry, based on a character created by author Max Brand.
[30] Murphy was lent to MGM at a salary of $25,000[31] to appear in the 1951 The Red Badge of Courage directed by John Huston and adapted from the Stephen Crane novel.
At the urging of Spec McClure and celebrity columnist Hedda Hopper, over the misgivings of producer Gottfried Reinhardt and studio executives Louis B. Mayer and Dore Schary, director Huston cast Murphy in the lead of The Youth (Henry Fleming in the novel).
[32] The preview screening audiences were not enthusiastic, causing Schary to re-edit Huston's work, eliminating several scenes and adding narration by James Whitmore.
The finale shows Murphy being awarded the Medal of Honor while images of his unit's casualties pass across the screen.
Spec McClure scripted a second unused version of The Way Back[39] that incorporated Murphy's real-life friends into the storyline and ended with the star living happily ever after with Pamela and their two sons.
[46] Veteran character actor Dan Duryea who portrayed villain Whitey Kincaide in Ride Clear of Diablo played a second lead in two more Murphy vehicles, Night Passage[47] and Six Black Horses.
The Story of Charles Russell with Murphy as the lead was under development at Universal but shelved after the disappointing receipts of Walk the Proud Land.
Murphy, however, was enthusiastic enough about a biopic of Charles Marion Russell to give serious consideration tor his own production that would star Guy Mitchell in the lead, but the film was not made.
[53] Murphy's collaboration with Walter Mirisch on Cast a Long Shadow included an uncredited stint as co-producer.
[59] Herbert Coleman directed Posse from Hell as well as the World War II drama Battle at Bloody Beach set in the Philippines.
[60] Willard W. Willingham and his wife, Mary, were friends of Murphy's from his earliest days in Hollywood and who worked with him on a number of projects.
[67] The Willinghams as a team wrote the screenplays for Gunpoint[68] as well the script for Murphy's last starring lead in a western, 40 Guns to Apache Pass .
[69] Released through Columbia Pictures in May 1967, the story centered on Murphy's character retrieving a cache of stolen rifles sold to Apache leader Cochise.
[74] Budd Boetticher wrote the script, and agreed to the production as a return favor for an earlier time when Murphy had bailed him out of financial setbacks.
The United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was concerned about the violent content in the show and leveled charges against the network.
[132] Among the 1955 celebrity television shows on which Murphy appeared to promote the film was Toast of the Town hosted by Ed Sullivan.
[133] Murphy played a mentally unbalanced stranger who posed as a student and handyman and terrorized homeowner Thelma Ritter.
In 1960, he was awarded the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal for his cooperation in the production of The Big Picture television series episode Broken Bridge.
