Murray Head

Acting

Murray Head

Born 1946-03-05 · London, England, UK

Murray Seafield St George Head (born 5 March 1946) is an English actor and singer. Head has appeared in a number of films, including a starring role as the character Bob Elkin in the Oscar-nominated 1971 film Sunday Bloody Sunday. As a musician, he is most recognised for his international hit songs "Superstar" (from the 1970 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar) and "One Night in Bangkok" (the 1984 single from the musical Chess, which topped the charts in various countries), and for his 1975 album Say It Ain't So. He has been involved in several projects since the 1960s and continues to record music, perform concerts, and make appearances on television either as himself or as a character actor. Head was born in London to Seafield Laurence Stewart Murray Head (20 August 1919 – 22 March 2009) and Helen Shingler (29 August 1919 − 8 October 2019). Head's father was a documentary filmmaker for Verity Films. Head's mother played Mme Maigret alongside Rupert Davies in the BBC 1960s television adaptation of the Maigret novels written by Georges Simenon. Head's younger brother Anthony Head is also an actor, best known for playing Rupert Giles in the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Head was educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in South Kensington, London and Hampton School in Hampton, Middlesex. He attended Chiswick Polytechnic (A level college) in the early 1960s. Head began writing songs as a child, and by the mid-1960s he had a London-based recording contract. He briefly appeared as one of the hosts of the Bristol-based television pop show Now! alongside Michael Palin. He had limited success, until asked by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber to play Judas Iscariot on the original concept album version of Jesus Christ Superstar; at the time, he had been appearing in the West End production of the musical Hair. With the Trinidad Singers, the song "Superstar" peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1971. He made his film debut in The Family Way (1966), which featured Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett and John Mills in the leading roles. Head won a leading role in the Oscar-nominated film Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), alongside Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson. Despite these successes, he received little public attention in the next ten years (except for his single release, "Say It Ain't So, Joe" in 1975, which has been covered by The Who's lead vocalist, Roger Daltrey, among others, including The Hollies). "Never Even Thought" has been covered by both Colin Blunstone and Cliff Richard. In 1973, he appeared in a radio drama, The Fourth Tower of Inverness. In 1979, Head appeared in the miniseries Prince Regent and the final episode of the ITV program Return of the Saint. ... Source: Article "Murray Head" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Acting credits

White Mischief poster
6.1

A millionaire past his prime and his young wife arrive in Kenya circa 1940 to find that the other affluent British expatriates are living large as the homefront gears up for war. They are busy swapping partners, doing drugs, and attending lavish parties and horse races. She begins a torrid affair with one of the bon vivants, and her husband finds out and confronts them. The husband and wife decide to break up peacefully, but the bon vivant is murdered and all the evidence points to the husband.

White Mischief

1987

Sunday Bloody Sunday poster
6.5

Recently divorced career woman Alex Greville begins a romantic relationship with glamorous mod artist Bob Elkin, fully aware that he's also intimately involved with middle-aged doctor Daniel Hirsh. For both Alex and Daniel, the younger man represents a break with their repressive pasts, and though both know that Bob is seeing both of them, neither is willing to let go of the youth and vitality he brings to their otherwise stable lives.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

1971

Madame Claude poster
4.9

Based on a true story. Madame Claude, a well connected Parisienne with dark past, runs a network of high-class call girls. She sends her girls to any place in the world to satisfy sexual desires of wealthy and powerful men. Claude's manipulations also involve big business and politics. Meanwhile, photographer David Evans is trying to clear his own criminal record by providing the authorities with pictures of Claude's girls with important clients in compromising positions. But powerful men can do anything to keep their secrets...

Madame Claude

1977

Cindy - Cendrillon 2002 poster
4.7

The plot incorporates many elements from the Cinderella story, transposed into a modern context. Cindy is a young mixed-race girl, the daughter of an Irish pilot who recently disappeared and a “Sun Girl” whom she never knew. She lives in the suburbs with her stepmother La Palma and her two stepsisters Pétula and Tamara who mistreat her. Her consolations are her favorite dance, the jig, which her father taught her, and a few outings, which cannot last long, however, because her stepmother threatens to kick her out if she does not return home before midnight.

Cindy - Cendrillon 2002

2002

No Pasaran poster
5.0

Maxence Lafourcade raises pigs in the Pyrenees. His life changes when he learns that a highway will cross his his farm. To face the cynical deputy mayor and his project, he must make an unnatural alliance with a disillusioned lawyer, whose daughter Maxence falls in love with.

No Pasaran

2009

Horsehead poster
5.3

Since her childhood, Jessica has been haunted by recurrent nightmares whose meaning escapes her. This peculiarity has led her to study the psychophysiology of dreams and to follow a therapy with Sean, her mentor and boyfriend, to try and understand the origin of her nightmares. Following the death of her maternal grandmother she hardly knew, Jessica reluctantly returns to the family home. Jessica then begins to wander in a nightmarish world inhabited by twisted versions of her family members. She gradually improves her skills as a lucid dreamer and investigates to solve the mystery that gnaws her and haunts the family home...

Horsehead

2014

D-Day 6.6.1944 poster
7.1

On June 6th, 1944 the largest military invasion and defence the world has ever seen occurred. D-Day tells the epic story of the preparation and execution of the Allied invasion of Normandy. It tells the story of the defence of the Western Front by the forces of the German Empire, and of the complex and deadly secret war fought by the men and women of France and mainland Europe. D-Day brings to life the dramatic and astounding tales of courage and sacrifice, joy and despair, love and betrayal. The planning for the Allied invasion on June 6th 1944 took two years and cost thousands of lives. It involved a deception of breathtaking audacity. Both the preparation leading up to and the actions and events on the day itself relied on the absolute discretion of many and the genius and nerve of a few. D-Day examines the intricate jigsaw from both sides - presenting events through the eyes of the men and women who were there, telling their extraordinary stories.

D-Day 6.6.1944

2004

The Family Way poster
6.7

Young newlyweds Arthur and Jenny Fitton want nothing more than to get their marriage started on the right foot. But before they can depart for their honeymoon in Spain, they have to spend their first night together at the home of Arthur's parents. The couple are prevented from having any intimacy, but it only gets worse. They find out that their trip to Spain is canceled, which sets the tone for a rocky few weeks.

The Family Way

1966

Beaumarchais the Scoundrel poster
6.5

Beaumarchais the Scoundrel is a biopic film based on the life of the French playwright, financier and spy Pierre Beaumarchais depicting his activities during the American War of Independence and his authorship of the Figaro trilogy of plays.

Beaumarchais the Scoundrel

1996

Two Weeks in September poster
5.0

Cecile is a young and beautiful Frenchwoman married to a much older Englishman. She loves her husband and seems content with her life, until she meets a younger man and feels forgotten passions stirring within. She now finds herself confronted with a choice: stay with the steady and peaceful love of her husband, or run off for excitement and adventure with a new love?

Two Weeks in September

1967

I, Cesar poster
5.6

Cesar is a young schoolboy living in Paris with his family. Their life is ordinary, but Cesar wants more excitement (which he creates, in one instance, by claiming to his teachers that his father has been arrested). During the school holidays, Cesar and his friend Sarah decide to help their mutual friend, Morgan, find his father who supposedly lives in London. Each one tells their parents that they're staying with the other two, and together they sneak out to begin their search.

I, Cesar

2003

Chess Moves poster
8.0

A music video compilation from the musical Chess.

Chess Moves

1985

Taking Leave poster
NR

Mike comes home on leave from Ulster. After six years in the Army he has to decide whether to sign up again or not. His parents want him to leave the army and come home, but the family flare-ups and bickerings are not conducive to helping him choose.

Taking Leave

1974

The Savage poster
3.7

Story of a teenage girl whose father dies. She goes to live with her father's friends, a couple. As a sort of revenge on her Father, whom she hates for abandoning her and her mother, she seduces Murray Head, ruining his life. From destroying his and his wife's lives, her own life is reborn.

The Savage

1989

Gawain and the Green Knight poster
5.0

The medieval legend of a supernatural knight who challenges the king's men to kill him.

Gawain and the Green Knight

1973

Chess in Concert poster
10.0

The story of a romantic triangle between two top players, an American and a Russian, in a world chess championship, and a woman who manages one and falls in love with the other, all in the context of the Cold War struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. Concert production of the musical staged during the finals of the 1989 chess World Cup tournament in in Skellefteå, Sweden and broadcast on Swedish television.

Chess in Concert

1989

Magasinet Special: Chess 1984 poster
NR

A documentary about the recording of the CHESS concept album by Tim Rice, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus.

Magasinet Special: Chess 1984

1984

La Mandarine poster
4.8

Paris, seventies. In a hotel in the glittering Rue de Rivoli an English boy falls in love with the two young grandchildren of the owner. Based on the novel "La Mandarine" by Christine de Rivoyre.

La Mandarine

1972

No artwork available
NR

A writer, working on her latest thriller in a remote country cottage, is shocked by the arrival of a stranger. Who is he? Why is he there?

Intent to Murder

1974

Stormy Summer poster
5.0

Every year, the whole gather in the French region of Auvergne's home. During this 1944 summer, Louis falls in love with his cousin Laurence. The arrival of a British skydiver, Jack, will completely upset Laurence. Louis, jealous like crazy, will betray the skydiver who will die in front of his eyes. But his cousin François-Xavier has also seen what happened.

Stormy Summer

1989

El poder del deseo poster
8.0

Javier lives with his mother in a modest apartment. He conducts surveys on the effectiveness of ads. This work provides a humble earning for the two of them. One day he meets Juna at a bus stop. He tries to ask her out, but she refuses. A few days later, they meet again. Slowly a relationship develops, but her plan is to marry someone rich. Javier's wealthy uncle included him in his testament, so Juna talks Javier into killing the uncle.

El poder del deseo

1975

Lovers of the Nile poster
6.5

During the Second World War, in 1943, Anne Frendo, a young dreamer and artist, living alone with her father in Tunisia, discovers, by chance, the lifeless body of a French soldier, parachuted in. At the invitation of her aunt, Sophie Frendo, an Egyptologist, she sets out on a journey that leads her to Sfax, Egypt, taking with her a letter that the soldier had begun to write, and which seems to be intended for her.

Lovers of the Nile

2002

The Big Snake of the World poster
6.0

Tom Paradise, a young 40-something refusing to grow up, drives his bus endlessly through the city dreaming of the landscape of the American West that forever impressed him. In love with freedom and Jack Kerouac's On the Road, he resists all the sensible people who try to persuade him to settle down. For Tom has only one idea in his head: to once again head south, riding the waves of love and fate.

The Big Snake of the World

1999

Behind the camera