F. Murray Abraham

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F. Murray Abraham
Abraham in 2008
Born
Murray Abraham

(1939-10-24) October 24, 1939 (age 84)[1]
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Texas at El Paso
University of Texas at Austin
OccupationActor
Years active1959–present
Spouse
Kate Hannan
​
​
(m. 1962; died 2022)​
Children2
AwardsFull list

F. Murray Abraham (born Murray Abraham;

Grammy Award. He came to prominence for his portrayal of Antonio Salieri in the drama film Amadeus (1984) for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor
.

Abraham made his

Broadway debut in the 1968 play The Man in the Glass Booth. He received the Obie Award for Outstanding Performance for his roles in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya (1984) and William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (2011). He returned to Broadway in the revival of Terrence McNally's comedy It's Only a Play (2014), receiving a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play
nomination.

He has appeared in many roles, both leading and supporting, in films such as All the President's Men (1976), Scarface (1983), The Name of the Rose (1986), Last Action Hero (1993), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Dillinger and Capone (1995), Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), Finding Forrester (2000), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Isle of Dogs (2018) and How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019).

He was a regular cast member on the

Primetime Emmy Award.[5]

Early life and education

Abraham was born Murray Abraham on October 24, 1939, in

Italian American and the daughter of an Italian immigrant who worked in the coal mines of Western Pennsylvania.[4] He had two younger brothers, Robert and Jack, who were killed in separate car accidents.[6]

Abraham was raised in El Paso, Texas. Murray and his two younger brothers were altar boys in the St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in El Paso.[13][14] He attended Vilas Grammar School, and graduated from El Paso High School in 1958.[15] He was a gang member during his teenage years.[4] In El Paso, Abraham worked in the Farah Clothing [fr] factory owned by a Lebanese family before launching a career in acting.[16] He attended Texas Western College (later named University of Texas at El Paso), where he was given the best actor award by Alpha Psi Omega for his portrayal of the Indian Nocona in Comanche Eagle during the 1959–60 season. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, then studied acting under Uta Hagen at HB Studio[17] in New York City. He began his acting career on the stage, debuting in a Los Angeles production of Ray Bradbury's The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit.

Abraham added "F." to his stage name in honor of his father Fahrid.[18] He has stated that "Murray Abraham just doesn't seem to say anything. It just is another name, so I thought I'd frame it".[3]

Career

1971–1978: Early roles

Abraham made his screen debut as an usher in the George C. Scott comedy They Might Be Giants (1971). He can be seen as one of the undercover police officers along with Al Pacino in Sidney Lumet's Serpico (1973) and in television roles including the bad guy in one fourth-season episode of Kojak ("The Godson"). His early film roles include small parts as a cabdriver in the theatrical version of Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue (1975), a mechanic in the theatrical version of Simon's The Sunshine Boys (1975). He also played a police officer in the Alan J. Pakula Watergate film All the President's Men (1976), and acted in the comedy films The Ritz (1976) opposite Rita Moreno and The Big Fix (1978) alongside Richard Dreyfuss.

By the mid-1970s, he also had steady employment doing commercials and voice-overs. Most notably, he played "the leaf", one of four costumed characters, in television and print commercials for Fruit of the Loom underwear.[19] In 1978, he gave up this work. Frustrated with the lack of substantial roles, he said: "No one was taking my acting seriously. I figured if I didn't do it, then I'd have no right to the dreams I've always had." His wife, Kate Hannan, went to work as an assistant and Abraham became a "house husband". As he described it: "I cooked and cleaned and took care of the kids. It was very rough on my macho idea of life. But it was the best thing that ever happened to me."[19]

1983–1986: Breakthrough and acclaim

Portrait of Antonio Salieri whom Abraham portrayed in Amadeus (1984)

Abraham gained greater prominence when he appeared as drug dealer Omar Suárez in the gangster film

Golden Globe Award
, among other awards and his role in the film remains his most famous.

Abraham's relatively low-profile film career subsequent to his

Academy Award win has been considered an example of the "Oscar jinx." According to film critic Leonard Maltin, professional failure following an early success is referred to in Hollywood circles as the "F. Murray Abraham syndrome."[20]
Abraham rejected this notion and told Maltin, "The Oscar is the single most important event of my career. I have dined with kings, shared equal billing with my idols, lectured at Harvard and Columbia. If this is a jinx, I'll take two." In the same interview, Abraham said, "Even though I won the Oscar, I can still take the subway in New York, and nobody recognizes me. Some actors might find that disconcerting, but I find it refreshing."

Abraham also joined The Mirror Theater Ltd's Mirror Repertory Company in 1984. He joined MRC the week after winning his Oscar for Best Actor for his work in Amadeus because he wanted to work with MRC Artist-in-Residence Geraldine Page (to whom he would eventually present her own Academy Award the following year) and would star opposite her in MRC's The Madwoman of Chaillot.[21]

Since Amadeus, he has mainly focused on classical theater and has starred in many

Bernardo Gui, nemesis to Sean Connery's William of Baskerville. In its DVD commentary, the director of the film, Jean-Jacques Annaud, described Abraham as an "egomaniac" on the set, who considered himself more important than Sean Connery because Connery did not have an Oscar.[22] Despite the on-set tensions, the film was a critical[23]
and commercial success.

1989–1998: Established actor

After the release of The Name of the Rose, Abraham tired of appearing as villains and wanted to return to his background in comedy.

Walter Kerr Theater, replacing Ron Leibman
in the role.

Over the next decade or so, Abraham had fewer prominent roles, but he did have substantial supporting roles in

Ring Cycle in the 1990 PBS broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera, to the largest viewing audience of the Ring Cycle in history, conducted by James Levine
.

In the 1997/98

Marivaux's classic comedy. The production did not find a large audience, running 85 performances after its pre-opening preview period.[26] He has also taught theater at Brooklyn College.[27]

2000–present: Career resurgence

The cast holding hands onstage
Abraham (last full figure on right) on stage at the end of a December 2014 production of It's Only a Play

A 2009 guest appearance on

Emmy Award
nomination in 2015, followed by a second in 2018.

Abraham has focused on stage work throughout his career, giving notable performances as Pozzo in

Duke Theater in New York and also at the Swan Theater, part of the Royal Shakespeare Company
. He reprised this role in February 2011, when he replaced Al Pacino in the Public Theater's production.

In the 2010s, he featured prominently in two widely acclaimed films: first as folk music impresario Bud Grossman in the Coen brothers' drama Inside Llewyn Davis (2013), then as the mysterious Mr. Moustafa in Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). He was nominated along with the ensemble for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for the later. That same year he returned to Broadway portraying Ira Drew in the revival of Terrence McNally's comedic play It's Only a Play. Abraham starred alongside Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Stockard Channing, and Rupert Grint. For his performance he earned a nomination for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play. In 2016, he played the title role in Classic Stage Company's production of Nathan the Wise.[28]

He reunited with Wes Anderson voicing a role in

Judge John Sirica in the HBO political drama limited series White House Plumbers
.

Murray acted in the

Emerson Colonial Theatre in Boston.[33]

Personal life

Marriage

Abraham was married to Kate Hannan for 60 years (1962–2022) until her death on November 19, 2022.[34] At that time, they had two children and one grandchild.[35][36]

In 1993, while filming the movie Surviving the Game in rural Washington state, Abraham was involved in a car crash in which another driver was killed, while Abraham was injured.[37] In January 2010, Abraham scuffled with a thief in the dressing room area during a public rehearsal at the Classic Stage Company in New York City.[38]

Religious beliefs

Abraham has spoken about his faith: "I've attended many churches. I grew up as an Orthodox Christian and I was an altar boy. I love the

Society of Friends, the Quakers. I attended their meetings for almost fifteen years. I'm now [in 2008] attending the First Presbyterian Church of New York because they're such a generous, terrific church with outreach. They reach out to old people, to homeless, to A.A., to cross-dressers: it's truly a church of the teachings of Christ. Religion is essential to my life."[39]

Acting credits and accolades

Main articles: F. Murray Abraham on screen and stage and List of awards and nominations received by F. Murray Abraham

Abraham received an

Screen Actors Guild Award
nominations with the ensemble casts of Homeland and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014). He has earned two Obie Awards for his work in theater for his performances in Uncle Vanya (1984) and The Merchant of Venice (2011).

In July 2004, during a ceremony in

honorary doctorate from Rider University
in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.

References

  1. ^ Suskind, Alex (8 October 2014). "F Murray Abraham on Homeland, Broadway and turning 75: 'I am afraid of nothing on stage'". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  2. ^ "Getting to Know F. Murray Abraham". La Stage Times. Archived from the original on 2013-10-12. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
  3. ^ a b "Academy Award-Winning Actor F. Murray Abraham | The Diane Rehm Show from WAMU and NPR". The Diane Rehm Show. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
  4. ^ a b c d e Salomon, Andrew (2007-02-15). "The Lion in Winter". Backstage.com. Archived from the original on 2007-03-04. Retrieved 2007-02-15.
  5. ^ Kirsten, Chuba; Lewis, Hilary (December 12, 2022). "Golden Globes: List of Nominees". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  6. ^ a b Stark, John (March 18, 1985). "His Meanie Role in Amadeus Makes Nice Guy F. Murray Abraham the Man to Beat for the Oscar: People.com". People. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  7. ^ "JOSEPHINE ABRAHAM Obituary (2012) El Paso Times". Legacy.com. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  8. ^ How I Got My Equity Card Archived 2011-04-21 at the Wayback Machine. Actorsequity.org. Retrieved on 2012-10-15.
  9. ^ Abraham, F. Murray. "How Actor F. Murray Abraham Is Helping Syrian Refugees". AARP. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  10. ^ Abraham, F. Murray (2017-04-10). "Opinion | F. Murray Abraham: Open Our Doors to Syrians". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 June 2021.
  11. ^ Obituary of Adele Hendricks Abraham (1923–2019), aunt of Murray Abraham, where it is stated she, three of her sisters and her brother Fred Abraham were born in Myklos, now in Syria. Obituary of Marion Abraham Unsell (1914–1998), aunt of Murray Abraham, who died in El Paso in 1988 where it says she was born in Myklos in today's Syria
  12. ^ Coltin, Jeff (2016). "Actor F. Murray Abraham on Syrian refugees and de Blasio's New York". cityandstateny.com.
  13. ^ a b Long, Trish (2008). "Mom recalls boyhood of star-to-be". El Paso Times.
  14. ^ a b "F. Murray Abraham". Theamerican.co.uk.
  15. ^ Tales from the Morgue: Hometown stars – F. Murray Abraham. Elpasotimes.typepad.com (2008-07-10). Retrieved on 2012-10-15.
  16. ^ Orfalea, Gregory. "The Arab Americans". Aramcoworld.com.
  17. ^ "HB Studio – Notable Alumni | One of the Original Acting Studios in NYC". Hbstudio.org. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  18. ^ Farber, Stephen (September 20, 1984). "The New York Times: Best Pictures". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  19. ^ a b His Meanie Role in Amadeus Makes Nice Guy F. Murray Abraham the Man to Beat For the Oscar. People.com. Retrieved 2014-08-01.
  20. ^ "Is winning an Oscar a curse or a blessing?". Archived from the original on December 7, 2008. Retrieved 2007-05-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) film.com (2007).
  21. ^ Nemy, Enid (26 April 1985). "BROADWAY". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  22. ^ Jean-Jacques Annaud, The Name of the Rose DVD commentary, Warner Home Video, 2004.
  23. ^ "The Name of the Rose (Der Name der Rose)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
  24. ^ Stark, John (6 October 1986). "An Evil F. Murray Abraham Fights Friar Sean Connery in The Name of the Rose". People. Vol. 26, no. 14. p. 112. Retrieved 24 November 2017.
  25. ^ "King Lear at American Repertory Theater Loeb Drama Center 1991". www.abouttheartists.com.
  26. ^ The official source for Broadway Information. IBDB. Retrieved on 2012-10-15.
  27. ^ Span, Paula (29 September 1986). "F. Murray Abraham, Take 1". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 June 2017.
  28. The Huffington Post
    , 14 April 2016
  29. ^ Roundtree, Cheyenne (14 April 2023). "F. Murray Abraham Was Kicked Off 'Mythic Quest' for Sexual Misconduct". Rolling Stone.
  30. ^ Otterson, Joe (20 April 2023). "F. Murray Abraham Apologizes After 'Mythic Quest' Dismissal: 'I Told Jokes That Upset Some Colleagues'". Variety.
  31. ^ "Moon Knight Image 3". DMED Media. Archived from the original on 2022-02-15. Retrieved 2022-02-15.
  32. ^ "Charades, UTA Board 'Mother, Couch' With Taylor Russell, Ewan McGregor (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. 31 July 2023. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  33. ^ "Kristin Chenoweth and F. Murray Abraham Set for Pre-Broadway Premiere of Stephen Schwartz's The Queen of Versailles in Boston". Broadway.com. Retrieved February 10, 2024.
  34. ^ "KATE ABRAHAM OBITUARY". Legacy.com. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  35. ^ González, María Cortés. "Josephine Abraham, 96, loved life, according to famous son F. Murray Abraham". ElPasoTimes.com. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  36. ^ "The Movie : F. Murray Abraham". Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved 2007-09-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). amadeusimmortal.com
  37. ^ Seattle Times News Services, Seattle Times Staff (September 5, 1993). "Actor Hurt In Highway Crash". The Seattle Times. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  38. ^ Healy, Patrick (January 26, 2010). "F. Murray Abraham: Action Hero". The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2010.
  39. ^ Signore, John Del (21 April 2008). "F. Murray Abraham, Actor". Gothamist.com. Archived from the original on 26 August 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2022.
  40. ^ F. Murray Abraham Gielgud Award 2010. Vimeo.com (2011-01-17). Retrieved on 2012-10-15.
  41. ^ "Theater Hall of Fame Ceremony, Honoring Susan Stroman, F. Murray Abraham, Philip J. Smith and More, Presented Tonight". Playbill.com. May 4, 2015. Retrieved June 3, 2015.

External links

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