Audie Murphy’s film career had been a successful one, but in the mid 1960s he put his acting career on the back burner, focusing instead on his ranches and business interests

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Born in Kingston, Texas to cotton sharecroppers on June 20, 1924, Audie Murphy was devastated when his father abandoned his large family in the late 1930s. To make matters worse, his mother passed away only a few years later. After the death of his mother, Murphy enlisted in the Army in 1942 and emerged from World War II as the nation’s most decorated soldier and appeared on the cover of several magazines. War wounds aside, his boyish looks and popularity as a war hero made him a natural for films.
Audie Murphy

Not long after his release from the service, Murphy made his way to Hollywood at the invitation of actor James Cagney. His first screen appearance came in the Paramount drama Beyond Glory (1948; with Alan Ladd and Donna Reed), in which Murphy portrayed a soldier. He landed a starring role in the juvenile-delinquent drama Bad Boy (1949; with Lloyd Nolan and Jane Wyatt). In 1949, while acting in a remake of Forbidden Valley titled Sierra (1950; with Burl Ives and Wanda Hendrix), Murphy met and married starlet Wanda Hendrix. The same year he published his now-famous autobiography, To Hell and Back, which is still in print. Murphy’s brief marriage to Hendrix suffered under the strain of their careers and ended after just a few months. In 1951, Murphy married his second wife, Pamela Archer, a flight attendant.

While Murphy’s career had been a bit rocky at first, with the young actor struggling with acting and dancing lessons, it stabilized when he signed a long-term contract with Universal-International in 1951. The studio cast Murphy in a string of westerns, which suited his persona and talents, including The Duel at Silver Creek (1952; with Faith Domergue, Susan Cabot, and Gerald Mohr) and Ride Clear of Diablo (1954; with Dan Duryea, Susan Cabot, and Russell Johnson). The biggest picture of Murphy’s career came in To Hell and Back (1955; with Marshall Thompson and Charles Drake), based on his autobiography of the same title.

Audie Murphy’s film career had been a successful one, but in the mid 1960s he put his acting career on the back burner, focusing instead on his ranches and business interests. Unfortunately, he faced a reversal of fortune and was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1968. Following this, attempted a comeback in Budd Boetticher’s A Time for Dying (1969; with Victor Jory), which proved to be his last film. Tragically, Murphy died with six others while on a business trip in a plane crash near Roanoke, Virginia, on May 28, 1971, at age 46. He was survived by his second wife, Pamela, and their two sons.

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