Murphy, George Lloyd

(b. 4 July 1902 in New Haven, Connecticut; d. 3 May 1992 in Palm Beach, Florida), actor who appeared in more than forty films, primarily as a song-and-dance man, and who assumed a leadership role in the Screen Actors Guild. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1964 to 1970.

Murphy was the youngest of three children born to Michael Charles Murphy and Nora Long. Murphy’s father was the track coach at the University of Pennsylvania as well as an Olympic coach who worked with the famed athlete Jim Thorpe. Two years following the death of his father in 1913, Murphy and his family moved to Detroit to live with his mother’s parents. In 1917 his mother died, and Murphy received a partial athletic scholarship to attend the Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey. He subsequently attended the Pawling School in Pawling, New York, from which he graduated in 1921.

Although he was less than a stellar student, Murphy’s family connections and athletic talents secured his admission to Yale College in the fall of 1921. However, Murphy enjoyed the collegiate party and sport scene more than his studies, and in 1924 he departed Yale without graduating. After working in a variety of jobs, including as a miner in Pennsylvania where he was injured in a mine car accident, Murphy ended up in New York City, where he was employed as a runner for a Wall Street brokerage firm. While living and working in New York, Murphy met the dancer Julie Johnson (real name Juliette Henkel), who taught him to dance. Johnson and Murphy formed a dance act, performing in cocktail lounges, nightclubs, and vaudeville. They were married on 28 December 1926. The marriage produced two children and lasted forty-seven years until Johnson’s death in 1973.

Murphy made his Broadway debut in 1927, and the couple received their big break in 1929 when they took over the lead roles in the popular musical Hold Everything. Murphy moved on to a successful solo career in the Broadway romantic comedy productions Of Thee I Sing (1933) and Roberta (1934).

In 1934, Murphy made the transition from Broadway to Hollywood, portraying Eddie Cantor’s younger brother in Kid Millions. In the 1930s and 1940s, Murphy appeared in over forty films, most of them musicals, capitalizing upon his dancing background in New York. Among Murphy’s musical films are: After the Ounce (1935); Top of the Town (1937); Little Miss Broadway, with Shirley Temple (1938); Broadway Melody (1940), with Fred Astaire; Little Nellie Kelly (1940), with Judy Garland; For Me and My Gal (1942), which also featured Judy Garland and Gene Kelly; and Step Lively (1944). Among his non-musical credits and dramatic roles are: Public Menace (1935); London by Night (1937); Risky Business (1939); The Navy Comes Through (1942); Bataan (1943), with Robert Taylor; The Arnelo Affair (1947); Big City (1948); Battleground (1949); and Walk East on Bacon! (1952).

A longtime Democrat, in 1939 Murphy converted to the Republican Party, increasingly taking an active role in both Hollywood and national politics. As a member of the board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild from 1937 to 1953 and serving as its president (1944–1946), Murphy was noted for his efforts to combat racketeering and earn better working conditions for screen actors. However, some of his most controversial actions were taken in his support of the House Un-American Activities Committee investigations into the role of the Communist Party in Hollywood. In his 1979 autobiography, Murphy asserted that he was proud of his role in the Hollywood anticommunist crusade: “What ever the reasons, the communist party became a major threat in the motion picture industry. Fighting communism was not easy, nor was it pleasant, but it had to be done. It still has to be done—and not only in Hollywood” (p. 296).

While blacklisted performers were unhappy with Murphy, he was honored by the industry, receiving a special Academy Award in 1951 for “services in interpreting the film industry to the country at large.” Retiring from acting in 1952, he served as a public relations spokesman for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1958, he joined Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball at Desilu Productions, serving as vice president, before moving on to the Technicolor Corporation as vice president and director of operations in 1966.

Meanwhile, Murphy continued his active involvement with the Republican Party, serving as chair of the California state central committee in 1953 and directing the 1953 and 1957 inaugurations of President Eisenhower and providing programming for the 1952, 1956, and 1960 Republican national conventions. In 1964 Murphy ran for the U.S. Senate, narrowly defeating Democratic candidate Pierre Salinger, former press secretary to President John Kennedy, even while President Lyndon Johnson was overwhelmingly carrying the state over his Republican rival, Barry Goldwater.

While he proved to be a successful fund raiser for the national Republican Party, Murphy’s senatorial career was controversial. His colleagues sometimes criticized him for being uninformed, while his voting record was conservative on issues such as civil rights and federal aid to education. Murphy also maintained a hawkish position on the Vietnam War, insisting that American troops were being prevented from achieving victory. What appeared to be his ultra-conservative record led to a split between Murphy and his Republican senatorial colleague from California, Thomas H. Kuehel.

Running for reelection in 1970, Murphy’s campaigning was limited by a 1966 operation for a malignancy on his vocal cords. Although the operation was successful, he required electronic amplification whenever he spoke. Murphy’s campaign was also the target of conflict-of-interest allegations arising from his continuing service as a paid consultant for Technicolor during his Senate tenure. Murphy’s reelection bid was defeated by the Democratic challenger John V. Tunney, son of the former heavyweight boxing champion, Gene Tunney.

Following his defeat, Murphy remained active in politics and public relations work. In 1973, after the death of his wife, Murphy retired to Florida, where he wrote his autobiography. In 1982, he married the socialite and former model Bette Blandi. Murphy died from leukemia at the age of eighty-nine and was buried in Palm Springs, Florida.

Murphy’s film career as a dancer and dramatic performer spanned two decades and forty films. His political career in Hollywood with the Screen Actors Guild and on the national level with the Republican Party in the Senate produced a controversial legacy. For example, as a union representative, he worked to secure better working conditions, while supporting the existence of a blacklist for those with alleged communist connections. He is also noted for fostering the political career of his fellow actor Ronald Reagan, who told the Los Angeles Times, “When I was beginning in show business he was a star who became a very good friend and a great help to me.… He was a wonderful man and he and I got very close together in those terrible days when there was a communist thrust in the film business.”

Murphy’s autobiography, Say… Didn’t You Used to Be George Murphy?, with Victor Lasky (1970), is a valuable source for the actor’s personal and political perspectives. Obituaries are in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times (both 5 May 1992).

Ron Briley