Trivia of Fred MacMurray

Trivia of Fred MacMurray (30 August 1908 - 5 November 1991)

*When he was teen, MacMurray played the saxophone and clarinet in numerous local bands that lead him to acting where he would show his versatility in films.

*Usually cast in light comedies as a thoughtful character in melodramas and musicals, MacMurray became one of the film industry's highest-paid actors of the period. In 1943, his annual salary had reached $420,000, making him the highest-paid actor in Hollywood and the fourth-highest-paid person in the nation.

*MacMurray did not serve in the military during the Second World War, instead working to sell war bonds and as an air-raid warden in his Brentwood neighborhood. The movies that he did produce during this period were mostly considered to be "morale-boosters" rather than outright "war pictures" that some of his contemporaries were churning out.

*During the production of the 1947 film "The Egg and I", the hens appearing in the movie laid over 300 eggs. MacMurray and costar Claudette Colbert autographed one egg each in fifty cartons. The eggs were sold at a local farmers market and profits were donated to the Braille Institute of America.

*His best known "bad guy" performance was that of Walter Neff, an insurance salesman who plots with a greedy wife to kill her husband in the film noir classic Double Indemnity (1944), co starring with Barbara Stanwyck. MacMurray stated that was his favorite role.

*In 1961 he took his family to Disneyland, and a woman came up to him and asked, "Are you Fred MacMurray?". When he replied that he was, she hit him with her purse and told him she had taken her children to see him in The Apartment (1960) and was furious because "that was not a Disney movie!". He responded, "No, ma'am, it wasn't." He then turned to his wife and announced he was done playing bad guys in movies.

*For Disney, he portrayed Wilson Daniels in The Shaggy Dog and Professor Ned Brainard in both The Absent-Minded Professor and Son of Flubber. He also appeared in Bon Voyage!, Follow Me, Boys!, The Happiest Millionaire, and Charley and the Angel.In 1987, MacMurray was the first person to be named a Disney Legend (A program recognizes people who have made an extraordinary and integral contribution to The Walt Disney Company).