Brian Murray

Although this wonderfully witty, enormously talented, classically trained theatre actor was unable to transition his award-winning theatre stardom to major twilight screen notice, South-African thespian Brian Murray nevertheless did receive late-blooming adulation for several stirring performances. Born Brian Bell on September 10, 1937, in Johannesburg, the stage actor/director attended King Edward VII School. It must have been a sign as he became a Shakespearean titan in later years. Making his stage bow in 1950 as "Taplow" in "The Browning Version," he continued on the South African stage in such roles as "Bus Stop' and "The Diary of Anne Frank" until 1957. Though he made his film debut fairly early in his career with The League of Gentlemen (1960) and showed strong promise and presence in The Angry Silence (1960) and as a radio announcer, editor and director, his first passion was the theatre and instead chose to join the Royal Shakespeare Company where his impressively youthful ga