Fred MacMurray, 1908-1991

Fred MacMurray protecting Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity (1944)

Today marks the birth anniversary of actor Fred MacMurray, who was born on this day in 1908. I have a feeling that people my age and younger are probably going to remember MacMurray first from reruns of My Three Sons, and any of the Disney movies that showed up on Wonderful World of Disney or whatever the then-current incarnation was. I think for anybody who does have that as their first memory of MacMurray, seeing something like Double Indemnity is a revelation, since MacMurray is so dark in it. He's just as much the bad guy in The Aparment, which was about the last thing he did before My Three Sons. (Both came out in 1960, but I don't know the exact filming dates.)

Of course, MacMurray's pre-TV career wasn't all dark. There are quite a few comedies, with one of the earliest being Hands Across the Table which I think I is on that Carole Lombard box set I got a few months back. I've been meaning to get back to that set, but don't want to do a whole bunch of movies from the same set all at one time. Then with Claudette Colbert there are things like No Time For Love and The Egg and I. MacMurray and Stanwyck also did a comedy, the glittering Christmas movie Remember the Night

And for something completely different you could watch the wartime "historical" comedy Where Do We Go From Here