(Image via 2oth Century Fox)

RIP Don Murray, who died Friday at 94.

Among his other distinctions, he was Marilyn Monroe's last living leading man, her Oscar-nominated co-star in Bus Stop (1956).

A fascinating guy, he tended to take roles early on that were social justice-related. Some of his other most noteworthy projects were The Rose Tattoo (1951 — at right) and The Skin of Our Teeth (1954) on Broadway; the films A Hatful of Rain (1957), Advise & Consent (1962) and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986); and TV work on The Outcasts (1968-1969), Knot's Landing (1979-1981) and Twin Peaks (2017).

He played a closeted gay senator in Advise & Consent for Otto Preminger, and said in 2014:

I went in to meet with Preminger, and he asked me if I would be reluctant, as some stars had turned it down. He said, “Do you think that playing a homosexual will hurt your career?”

His response was to point out that Preminger had played a Nazi.

I said, “Do you think playing a Nazi hurt your career?” And he said, “Being a Nazi didn’t hurt my career.” He was talking about his reputation for being such a dictatorial director on the set.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Murray at several autograph shows. He was well into his 80s and was as handsome and charming as ever, and a great story teller. Imagine — he worked with Marilyn Monroe, Charles Laughton, Sidney Poitier, Otto Preminger, Kathleen Turner and Brooke Shields.

To name a few.

Ten years since then — they flew by. (Image by Matthew Rettenmund)