Barbara Murray

Barbara Ann Murray (27 September 1929 – 20 May 2014) was an English actress born in London, England, whose career spanned film, television, and stage on both sides of the Atlantic.

Murray built her early reputation in British cinema during the 1940s and 1950s, appearing as a leading lady in a number of notable productions. Her film credits from this period include Passport to Pimlico (1949), Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953), and Doctor in the House (1954). She continued working in film into the following decade, taking a role in The Punch and Judy Man, a Tony Hancock vehicle, though her professional focus shifted increasingly toward television.

On the stage, Murray made her Broadway debut in 1962, appearing in A House in the Country. Her television work proved extensive and varied. She portrayed Mrs. Hauksbee across seven episodes of the dramatized adaptations of Rudyard Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills in 1964, and became particularly well known to British audiences for her role as Lady Pamela Wilder in the 1960s drama series The Plane Makers and its sequel, The Power Game. Among her most substantial television roles was Madame Max Goesler, a wealthy foreign widow, in The Pallisers, the adaptation of Anthony Trollope's series of novels. Additional television credits include The Escape of R.D.7, Danger Man, Never a Cross Word, The Saint, Department S, Strange Report, The Widow of Bath, The Mackinnons, Albert and Victoria, Robin's Nest (1978), The Bretts, and the Doctor Who serial Black Orchid.

In 1976, Murray sustained a broken jaw when the vehicle she was traveling in was involved in a collision during an acting tour of Brazil sponsored by the British Council, resulting in a six-week hospital stay.

Murray was married to actor John Justin, with whom she had three daughters; the marriage ended in divorce after twelve years in 1964. That same year she married Bill Holmes, an English literature teacher and former film actor who worked professionally under the name Peter Holmes; that marriage also ended in divorce.