George Murdock (born George Sawaya Jr.;[1] June 25, 1930 – April 30, 2012) was an American character actor, whose career was mainly in television.[2]
Murdock was born in Salina, Kansas.[3] He was the second child of seven children born to George R. Sawaya, a Lebanese immigrant, and Olive (née Johnson) Sawaya.
Murdock was an original cast member of the Los Angeles-based Melrose Theatre, appearing in “Lester Sims Retires Tomorrow” during its early 1980s off-Broadway run, while also appearing in productions staged at the South Coast Repertory as well as the Los Angeles Theater Center and the Odyssey Theatre.[2]
Murdock was known for frequently playing judges, (for instance, Judge Julius Hoffman in West Coast and Chicago stage productions of The Chicago Conspiracy Trial and in an adaptation for BBC Radio), he also performed the role of "Big Daddy" in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with the Arizona Theater Company during the 1988 season. He was also Laszlo Gabo on the 1986–87 sitcom What a Country!. These appearances, along with roles that leveraged Murdock’s craggy facial features and deep bass voice, led a Los Angeles Times reporter to ask him in 1982 if he ever objected to being typecast, to which Murdoch responded, “Getting the job is important. Who cares where it comes from.”[2]
Among his most well-known characters for movies and television were Lt. Scanlon, the bitter and suspicious NYPD Internal Affairs officer in Barney Miller, Dr. Salik in Battlestar Galactica TV series, "God" in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Admiral Hanson in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Best of Both Worlds", and as Yuri Testikov in the Seinfeld episode, "The Marine Biologist".
On April 30, 2012, Murdock died of cancer in Burbank, California, at age 81.[3] He was survived by his wife, Cathy, and a stepdaughter.[4]
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