Actor Murray Matheson Dies at Age 73

Murray Matheson, the silver-haired, distinguished actor who portrayed a series of patricians on stages around the world and appeared in a handful of films and television shows, died Thursday at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills.

The soft-spoken, Australian-born Matheson was 73 and died of apparent heart failure.

Born the son of a grazier, he first appeared in little theater in Melbourne in 1933, marking the beginning of a dramatic career that eventually took him around the world.

Known for his portrayals of stern characters, sometimes bent on larceny or even murder, he with equal facility could become Julius Caesar in “Antony and Cleopatra” or Captain Hook in “Peter Pan.”

London Debut in 1937

He toured with Australian national companies until 1935 when he moved to London, making his debut there in a revue, “And On We Go,” in 1937.

Within two years he had toured in “Oscar Wilde” and “Candida” and then returned to musical revues for “Band Wagon” at the Palladium in 1939.

Matheson served in the Royal Air Force from 1940 to 1945 and for three years was attached to the British Embassy in Moscow.

After the war, he again concentrated on the lighter side of his talents, touring England in such revues as “Better Late” and Canada in “The Drunkard.”

Matheson made his film debut in 1939 in J. Arthur Rank’s “Way to the Stars.” He first appeared in an American picture in 1952 in the little-remembered “Hurricane Smith” but obtained featured billing the following year in “Botany Bay,” a convict-ship thriller that starred James Mason and Alan Ladd.

Last Movie in 1983

He quickly made “King of the Khyber Rifles,” “Love Is a Many Splendored Thing,” “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and a few more. His last screen appearance was in 1983 as Mr. Agee in the second segment of “Twilight Zone--The Movie,” the Steven Spielberg adaptation of the television series.

Matheson never left legitimate theater, however, moving from television roles on “Studio One” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” to UCLA where he appeared in “Yeats and Company,” a retrospective of the Irish writer’s poems and plays.

In TV Shows

From 1972 to 1974 he portrayed Felix Mulholland in the TV detective drama “Banacek” and also was seen in guest appearances on “Charlie’s Angels,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “McCloud” and “Vegas.”

He also appeared throughout his career in nearly all the Noel Coward repertory.

He was at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center in 1966 as Von Mark in “The Student Prince” and at the Pasadena Playhouse for “Lock Up Your Daughters” in 1968.

One of his last stage performances was as Dr. Theodore Holley in the world premiere of the musical “The Charlatan” at the Mark Taper Forum in 1974.

He leaves no immediate survivors.