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James Murray (English actor)

James Murray, also known as Jim Murray, is an English actor. He is best known for his television roles, including Colonel Neil 'Chick' Harding in Masters of the Air, Prince Andrew in The Crown, Niles Pottinger in Defiance, Daniel Coltrane in Cucumber, Stephen Hart in Primeval, and Chief Superintendent John Houseman in McDonald & Dodds.

Early life

Murray was born in Manchester. He was awarded a classics scholarship by Malvern College, and has a degree in film. His great-grandfather, Richard Hollins Murray, invented the reflecting lens in 1927.

Career

Murray found fame in Primeval (ITV, 2008) as expert tracker Stephen Hart, and in Cucumber (Channel 4, 2015) as conflicted character Daniel Coltrane. Earlier on in his career he starred in a series of both film and television pieces, including the comedy series Roger Roger (1999), legal drama series North Square (2000), mini series Other People's Children (2000) and Sons & Lovers (2003), a Granada production of The Sittaford Mystery (2006) as Charles Burnaby, a film of the Thomas Hardy story Under the Greenwood Tree (2005) as Dick Dewy, plus earlier films Nailing Vienna (2002) as Peter, All the King's Men (1999) as Pvt Will Needham, and Phoenix Blue (2001) as Rick. He also found more permanent roles in Channel 4's 20 Things to Do Before You're 30 (2003) playing Glen and BBC One's season four of Cutting It (2005) as Liam Carney.

Murray starred in the ITV science fiction series Primeval as Stephen Hart, Nick Cutter's lab technician, in both series one (2007) and series two (2008).

Murray had the leading role of the father, Frank Davis, in It's Alive (2008) a remake of the 1970s horror classic by Larry Cohen.

He had a role in Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire, a comic fantasy series for Comedy Central and BBC Two, which began airing in April 2009. His character is Ralph Longshaft.

In the US, Murray was a lead in the CBS spy caper series CHAOS from 2010 to 2011. His character was called Billy Collins.

He was cast as Mayor Niles Pottinger, in the second series of Defiance, which first aired on 19 June 2014. Murray appeared in one episode ("Dead Air") of the third series which aired on 27 June 2015.

He took over from Fay Ripley as lead DCI in the completely improvised show Suspects as DCI Daniel Drummond, which aired in August 2016 (all six episodes).

He starred as the father, Edward, in the three part ITV supernatural series HIM.

In 2016, Murray played The Doge of Venice in season 1 of Netflix's Medici, before playing the lead role of Wesley opposite Polly Walker in BBC One's Age Before Beauty.

In 2017, Murray directed his old friend veteran actor Robert Hardy CBE in his last role alongside Nina Sosanya in his short film La Familia.

He appeared as Caleb in the Ryan Reynolds film 6 Underground released in December 2019. He was Chief Superintendent John Houseman in the ITV series McDonald & Dodds.

In 2021, Murray was cast as Colonel Neil 'Chick' Harding in Apple TV's WW2 epic bomber drama Masters of the Air. The series is directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and executive produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.

Murray directed and co-presented with Robson Green ITV's Robson and Jim's Icelandic Flyfishing Adventure (July 2021), a passion project about the therapeutic values of fly fishing set in the bountiful rivers in Iceland.

Murray played the role of Prince Andrew in the final two seasons of Netflix's The Crown.

Personal life

Murray married his Cutting It co-star Sarah Parish in Hampshire on 15 December 2007, following a two-year romance. On 18 January 2008, it was announced that Parish was pregnant with their first child. Their daughter, Ella-Jayne, was born five weeks premature in May 2008 and died in January 2009 aged 8 months due to a congenital heart defect.

Their daughter Nell was born on 21 November 2009.

In honour of Ella-Jayne, Parish and Murray began raising funds for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Southampton General Hospital, where she was cared for. Their efforts led to them creating the Murray Parish Trust in 2014, to enhance overall paediatric emergency care serving Southern England.