Rosemary Murphy obit

Rosemary Murphy, 89, Emmy Winner Familiar to Broadway, Dies

She was not on the list.

Rosemary Murphy, an Emmy Award-winning actress long ubiquitous on television, stage and screen, died on Saturday at her home in Manhattan. She was 89.

The cause was cancer, her nephew, Greg Pond, said.

Ms. Murphy won an Emmy in 1976 for her portrayal of Sara Delano Roosevelt, the mother of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in the ABC television movie “Eleanor and Franklin.” The film starred Edward Herrmann and Jane Alexander as the president and the first lady.

In a 1977 sequel, “Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years,” Ms. Murphy reprised her role and was nominated for an Emmy.

Elsewhere on television, Ms. Murphy played Mary Ball Washington, the mother of the nation’s first president, in the mini-series “George Washington” (1984) and Rose Kennedy, the mother of President John F. Kennedy, in the 1991 mini-series “A Woman Named Jackie.”

Her film credits include the part of Maudie Atkinson, a neighbor of Atticus Finch (played by Gregory Peck), in the celebrated 1962 film “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Ms. Murphy appeared on Broadway many times. In 1957 she originated the role of Helen Gant Barton, the weary daughter-in-law in “Look Homeward, Angel,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning stage adaptation by Ketti Frings of Thomas Wolfe’s novel.

Other roles she created include Dorothea Bates, the beleaguered wife of a Korean War veteran, in “Period of Adjustment” (1960), by Tennessee Williams; Dorothy Cleves, the well-meaning wife who blunders into her husband’s love nest, in Muriel Resnik’s 1964 comedy, “Any Wednesday”; and Claire, a bitter alcoholic, in “A Delicate Balance” (1966), by Edward Albee. Ms. Murphy received Tony nominations for all three parts.

Reviewing “Any Wednesday” in The New York Times, Howard Taubman called her performance “impeccably graceful.” Ms. Murphy reprised that role when “Any Wednesday” was adapted by Hollywood in 1966, appearing opposite Jason Robards and Jane Fonda.

Rosemary Murphy was born on Jan. 13, 1925, in Munich, where her father, the noted American diplomat Robert D. Murphy, was a vice consul. Reared mainly in France, she was sent to the United States in 1939, at the outbreak of war in Europe.

Ms. Murphy, whose résumé came to include French and German films, trained as an actress at the Catholic University of America in Washington and with Sanford Meisner in New York.

Her other stage work includes appearances at the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Conn., and the Spoleto Festival in Italy, where she created the part of the chaste Hannah Jelkes in the world premiere of Williams’s “The Night of the Iguana” in 1959.

Ms. Murphy was seen frequently on television shows of the 1950s and ’60s, among them “Lux Video Theater,” “Robert Montgomery Presents,” “The Virginian,” “Ben Casey” and “The Fugitive.”

Her later TV credits include the soap operas “The Young and the Restless” and “As the World Turns” and the short-lived drama “Lucas Tanner,” on which she was a regular.

Because many of the Broadway plays in which Ms. Murphy appeared turned out to be hits, she relied on her puckish sense of humor to ease the tedium of long runs. In an interview with The Times in 1965, she recalled an episode involving Anthony Perkins, who played her brother in “Look Homeward, Angel.”

“Knowing someone in particular is in the audience will sharpen your performance,” Ms. Murphy said. “Once during ‘Angel’ I told Tony Perkins that Federico Fellini was out front, and he spent three hours painstakingly enunciating every vowel so that Mr. Fellini would be able to understand him.

“He was a little miffed when we told him it was all a joke — but he gave a great performance.”

Filmography

    Das Ruf (1947) - Mary

    That Night! (1957) - Nurse 'Chorny' Chornis

    The Young Doctors (1961) - Miss Graves

    To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) - Maudie Atkinson

    The Virginian (1962) - Pearl Dodd Krause in the episode "Big Day, Great Day"

    Any Wednesday (1966) - Dorothy Cleves

    A Case of Libel (1968, TV Movie) - Claire

    A Fan's Notes (1972) - Moms

    Invitation to a March (1972, TV Movie)

    Ben (1972) - Beth Garrison

    You'll Like My Mother (1972) - Mrs. Kinsolving

    Walking Tall (1973) - Callie Hacker

    Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973) - Hannah

    40 Carats (1973) - Mrs. Latham

    A Case of Rape (1974, TV Movie) - Muriel Dyer

    The Lady's Not for Burning (1974, TV Movie) - Margaret Devize

    Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977, TV Movie) - Sara Delano Roosevelt

    Julia (1977) - Dottie

    Before and After (1979, TV Movie) - Helen, Carole's Mother

    The Attic (1980) - Mrs. Perkins

    Mr. Griffin and Me (1981, TV Movie) - Jane Barlow

    The Hand (1981) - Karen Wagner

    George Washington (1984, TV Mini-Series) - Mary Ball Washington

    September (1987) - Mrs. Mason

    For the Boys (1991) - Luanna Trott

    Twenty Bucks (1993) - Aunt Dotty

    And the Band Played On (1993, TV Movie) - Blood Bank Executive

    Don't Drink the Water (1994, TV Movie) - Miss Pritchard

    The Tuskegee Airmen (1995, TV Movie) - Eleanor Roosevelt

    Mighty Aphrodite (1995) - Adoption Coordinator

    Message in a Bottle (1999) - Helen At The B&B

    The Hunt for the Unicorn Killer (1999, TV Movie) - Bea Einhorn

    Dust (2001) - Angela

    The Savages (2007) - Doris Metzger

    Synecdoche, New York (2008) - Frances

    After.Life (2009) - Mrs. Whitehall

    The Romantics (2010) - Grandmother Hayes (final film role)