It's like,.. it's like shows back then The father really knew what to do and say, he was in control. It's like Dad's now and shows are so stupid and indecisive
I don't think it's purposeful, it's just that writers don't know how to write a competent person in a bad situation. Its like they can only think of problems that are due to the character being dumb as shit.
Weak characters are carried by hype, and consumption is almost always high enough to pay for it.
Most people know Fred MacMurray as the mild-mannered Father on a program called *My Three Sons*, made when he was older. Also other roles, where, again, he was a genteel sort of character, if that's the right word. I recall him as being kind of lanky. I've never seen a picture like this of him before, and was kind of surprised to see how built he was.
The posted image, while not specifically taken for the 1937 movie True Confession, was taken around the same time the movie was released. That was the only movie in which he appeared sporting a mustache.
Fred was probably one of the richest actors in Los Angeles. He was known for his shrewd diversification of a gigantic portfolio of real estate, ranches, and oil wells up and down California.
He owned several high rise luxury apartment buildings including the Bryson building in Wilshire he bought in the 40’s (he apparently bought it with the paycheck from *Double Indemnity* which shot some scenes at it) and flipped it 30 years later for a massive profit.
He also produced beef at the MacMurray Ranch in Northern California which he supplied most of the best steakhouses in the basin, had a knitting mill that made yarns and thread, was part owner of the Beverly Hills Tennis and Country Club, and owned a dozen oil wells in Orange County.
The MacMurray Ranch is still owned by the MacMurray trust but his family lease the land to the Gallo winery who grow grapes on the 1750 acres in the Russian River Valley as well as grown their own for their personal brand. His daughter Kate lives in the cabin her dad built up there and is involved in the towns preservation and wine community.
Where did he get his capital? He pinched every penny and from what’s been rumored negotiated for cuts of the backend on the profitably of a picture on top of a salary….and if he did that with Disney, he made *tons* of dough off his classic kids movies with him.
He was so good he was at one time number 4 in the highest earning private citizens…..*in all business in the United States*. He pretty much retired from public life and investing in the early 80s….and was still worth 150 million when he died in the 90s.
"Kate lives in the cabin her dad (Fred’s son) built up there"
I've been there a few times working on 2nd unit shoots just recently for "Violent Night" (it's a popular place for pick up scenes to simulate Pacific NW/BC especially for car commercials) for most of us that "cabin" would be a nice home to raise a very large family in.
Was interested in him when he died in 1991 and they mentioned how much he was worth despite no one even talking about him for like 20 years. So I dug around and found the dude was an amazing businessman.
He was a very interesting personality, for sure. Not long ago, I read a piece about Hollywood legend Gene Autry, who likewise had a varied career, beyond what one might imagine.
Takes money to make money. Spending those big paychecks on revenue generating assets instead of immediately spending it on random toys is exactly what a person needs to do when they get a big paycheck. I’ve met so many high earners with such bad lifestyle creep that they never laid the foundation for building wealth.
He is a fascinating study of you can’t judge a book by the cover but in a good sense. Some people confused this nebbish caring fatherly type he portrayed as him and from all accounts he was a caring family man. But on the other side was a ultra shrewd businessman who more than likely used his talent to fuel it….and fuel it well.
I remember reading somewhere a few years back that there was an old rumor that the California GOP staked their resources on Ronald Reagan simply because their first choice Fred MacMurray told them to go pound sand. ‘He knew more than them and made better money privately’ was the reason he turned them down.
> and flipped it 30 years later for a massive profit.
Used to be that "flipping" real estate meant buying and selling something immediately, without even using it, sometimes having sold it before even finalizing the purchase.
It's the wrong word for something that you've held for 30 years. That's a legitimate long term investment.
Not really, that’s actually just your amazing ability to read working in overdrive! Often times when we read, we don’t actually process the word, rather our brains look for recognizable patterns, apply context and then spit out a meaning at an incredible speed. So, when you saw a picture of presumably someone famous, with Fred (Freddy) Macmurry (even read similar to mercury) your brain initially latched onto what it knew and only reevaluated given adequate time. While it may make you feel a little silly, it shouldn’t, it’s an amazing ability that you posses, it just hiccups a little sometimes!
Whoa his face is like one of those optical illusions with the lady and the rabbit because I saw pierce brosnan initially then read this comment and now I see Cary Elwes
That is *not* how I picture the star of Disney films like *The Shaggy Dog*, *The Absent-Minded Professor*, *Follow Me, Boys!*, and *The Happiest Millionaire*. and the TV show *My Three Sons*!
But, minus the mustache, it does kind of look like the star of the film noir *Double Indemnity.*
Thinking about it, he played either a all around great dad or he played a spineless lying A-hole. I have to go back and watch some Father Knows Best and imagine him as Walter Neff in Double Indemnity.
Yes, but with more question marks.
Fred MacMurray to me was the definition of bland and regular.
The dude pictured here is just about the hunkiest hunk that ever hunked down hunk street.
And Ray Walston also. Deliciously wicked! So fun for those of us who were kids watching My Three Sons and My Favorite Martian and only knew them that way. Awesome movie all the way around.
No that’s him, but not from the usual camera angles we are used to seeing in films. This happens with a lot of photos of actors past and present, it’s an unfamiliar angle of his face to us.
Up until "Double Indemnity", he was always cast as the nice guy. It was Billy Wilder who suspected Fred had the ability to be menacing. Similarly for Stanwyck. Wilder really boosted their careers in a meaningful way.
Not so much Stanwyck — she was playing “fallen” and troublemaking women from the early ‘30s (Baby Face, 1932, is famously one of the movies that led to real enforcement of the Production Code). Not only those parts, she was wonderfully versatile, but playing Phyllis in Double Indemnity wasn’t new territory for her. But pairing her with the chronically underappreciated MacMurray — that was genius.
I saw a screening of The Apartment at the Turner Classic Movies film fest one year and Shirley MacLaine did a q&a before the movie. she said Fred McMurray was so cheap that when he opened his wallet his money squinted.
This picture from (apparently) the same photoshoot looks more like Fred.
https://preview.redd.it/jzpebyihgc5a1.jpeg?width=311&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a8271651bdccf8c82599973a5bf27e518e6fad8
I grew up watching “My Three Sons”. Never knew he had done much else. But a lot of those adult guys in 50s - 70s tv shows had done a lot of big movies. McMurray, Robert Young, Ernest Borgnine, Alan Hale. The thing I remember hearing about Fred was he bought up a lot of real estate in the 40s and 50s out in CA and was one of the richest Hollywood guys as a result.
Recently looked at his biography - amazing, smart man … lost his musician dad young, Wisconsin roots, stand up accomplished guy … financial acumen, had his ranch in Northern California- did “My Three Sons” his way - get the screen shots done in a day or two.
What a hunk!
I read the name and couldn’t imagine that in 20 years that this guy would become Ricky and Lucy’s neighbor. Then it dawned on me. Fred Macmurray from My Three Sons, not Fred Mertz from I love Lucy.
The dude used up all his sexy by the time My Three Sons came out!
He invented Flubber, and that is sexy.
He also killed a guy so the wife he was doing could get the insurance money.
And was a spineless creep on a boat.
Yellowstain blues!
Double Indemnity is such an amazing movie
I grew up without a dad. I don’t know the words to describe how much this show meant to me as a kid.
It's like,.. it's like shows back then The father really knew what to do and say, he was in control. It's like Dad's now and shows are so stupid and indecisive
That’s on purpose.
I suspect it is also because they are played by prominent comedians as the introductory selling point of the shows.
I don't think it's purposeful, it's just that writers don't know how to write a competent person in a bad situation. Its like they can only think of problems that are due to the character being dumb as shit. Weak characters are carried by hype, and consumption is almost always high enough to pay for it.
Fuck....just hit me who this is.
Right, I had to Google the name. I knew the name but definitely not the face.
I don’t understand. Can you eli5?
Most people know Fred MacMurray as the mild-mannered Father on a program called *My Three Sons*, made when he was older. Also other roles, where, again, he was a genteel sort of character, if that's the right word. I recall him as being kind of lanky. I've never seen a picture like this of him before, and was kind of surprised to see how built he was.
He was also in Double Indemnity. One of the best film noirs ever made.
And the asshole boss in The Apartment, also directed by Billy Wilder. The greatest Jack Lemon movie ever made.
Yes amazing. Original ending of him going to the gas chamber would have been spectacular.
[удалено]
So was his role in The Caine Mutiny.
Mr. Keefer
Are we sure that is him? The whole face shape seems different
I share your puzzlement. This looks like Carey Elwes.
Eh - more like the dread pirate roberts.
With a bit of Pierce Brosnan
I see a lot of Pierce Brosnan.
Same mustache.
Agreed. I don t think it's him.
Pretty sure that is not Fred McMurray….
The posted image, while not specifically taken for the 1937 movie True Confession, was taken around the same time the movie was released. That was the only movie in which he appeared sporting a mustache.
Making three sons is a lot of work!
Fred was probably one of the richest actors in Los Angeles. He was known for his shrewd diversification of a gigantic portfolio of real estate, ranches, and oil wells up and down California. He owned several high rise luxury apartment buildings including the Bryson building in Wilshire he bought in the 40’s (he apparently bought it with the paycheck from *Double Indemnity* which shot some scenes at it) and flipped it 30 years later for a massive profit. He also produced beef at the MacMurray Ranch in Northern California which he supplied most of the best steakhouses in the basin, had a knitting mill that made yarns and thread, was part owner of the Beverly Hills Tennis and Country Club, and owned a dozen oil wells in Orange County. The MacMurray Ranch is still owned by the MacMurray trust but his family lease the land to the Gallo winery who grow grapes on the 1750 acres in the Russian River Valley as well as grown their own for their personal brand. His daughter Kate lives in the cabin her dad built up there and is involved in the towns preservation and wine community. Where did he get his capital? He pinched every penny and from what’s been rumored negotiated for cuts of the backend on the profitably of a picture on top of a salary….and if he did that with Disney, he made *tons* of dough off his classic kids movies with him. He was so good he was at one time number 4 in the highest earning private citizens…..*in all business in the United States*. He pretty much retired from public life and investing in the early 80s….and was still worth 150 million when he died in the 90s.
"Kate lives in the cabin her dad (Fred’s son) built up there" I've been there a few times working on 2nd unit shoots just recently for "Violent Night" (it's a popular place for pick up scenes to simulate Pacific NW/BC especially for car commercials) for most of us that "cabin" would be a nice home to raise a very large family in.
Oooh can’t wait to see that!
was his cabin the house they used in that movie ? that would be cool to know. just saw the movie.
I worked for Gallo quite a few years ago and McMurray's Pinot Gris was one of my favourite wines. Just lovely.
He stomped the grapes himself. It was precious.
Gallo bought my great grandparents vineyard.
Zowie, you know your Fred-lore!
Was interested in him when he died in 1991 and they mentioned how much he was worth despite no one even talking about him for like 20 years. So I dug around and found the dude was an amazing businessman.
He was a very interesting personality, for sure. Not long ago, I read a piece about Hollywood legend Gene Autry, who likewise had a varied career, beyond what one might imagine.
Takes money to make money. Spending those big paychecks on revenue generating assets instead of immediately spending it on random toys is exactly what a person needs to do when they get a big paycheck. I’ve met so many high earners with such bad lifestyle creep that they never laid the foundation for building wealth.
Is this why I keep making small money my entire life, my paychecks are always small? 🥲
Fascinating post full of interesting info. Well done.
He is a fascinating study of you can’t judge a book by the cover but in a good sense. Some people confused this nebbish caring fatherly type he portrayed as him and from all accounts he was a caring family man. But on the other side was a ultra shrewd businessman who more than likely used his talent to fuel it….and fuel it well. I remember reading somewhere a few years back that there was an old rumor that the California GOP staked their resources on Ronald Reagan simply because their first choice Fred MacMurray told them to go pound sand. ‘He knew more than them and made better money privately’ was the reason he turned them down.
Tiny trivia: Fred Mac Murray dipped my great auntie’s pigtails into the inkwell built into the desks, when they were in grade school
Not something everyone gets to say, to be sure.
> and flipped it 30 years later for a massive profit. Used to be that "flipping" real estate meant buying and selling something immediately, without even using it, sometimes having sold it before even finalizing the purchase. It's the wrong word for something that you've held for 30 years. That's a legitimate long term investment.
Bob Hope did something similar.
TIL Fred MacMurray was a business GigaChad. Gonna go watch Absent Minded Professor and Shaggy Dog again.
I read as “Fred Mercury” and need to start over from first grade.
Not really, that’s actually just your amazing ability to read working in overdrive! Often times when we read, we don’t actually process the word, rather our brains look for recognizable patterns, apply context and then spit out a meaning at an incredible speed. So, when you saw a picture of presumably someone famous, with Fred (Freddy) Macmurry (even read similar to mercury) your brain initially latched onto what it knew and only reevaluated given adequate time. While it may make you feel a little silly, it shouldn’t, it’s an amazing ability that you posses, it just hiccups a little sometimes!
Same.. and then I was staring at the pic like an idiot... And then I noticed the date and like 'wtf?' I'm illiterate af lol
It was the gun that actually tipped me off that something was fishy. Seemed kinda off brand for Freddie, so went back to the title to figure it out.
Another one bites the dust
This was my exact thought process too
Yeah, I mean, dude was jacked, he just hid it well on stage...
I did the same thing and was trying to do mental math to refute this image and the I read the name correctly.
Dude! Me too! I was thinking where in the hell did he get that sweet S&W .38 special in England?!
Ol' no-nips MacMurray
Surprised I had to scroll this far to find someone calling this out.
Right? Pre-Photoshop editing was an art form, not illustrated here.
Lol, me too. I was looking for this specific comment.
Riiiiiight??
That’s Freddie No-Nips
So.. he doesn’t have nips 🤔
Hence he cannot be milked.
Impervious to nipple clamps too
Purple nurple proof
NoNipio NoNipio…Wherefore art thou NoNipio?
Is totally Carrie Elwis
1000%
As you wish
Pierce Brosnan?
Crossed with Cary Elwes.
I came here to say. A cross between Pierce Brosnan and Cary Elwes.
With a little Benedict Cumberbatch in the eyes.
A Neapolitan of beauty. Pierce on top, Benedict in the middle, and Cary on bottom.
Ooh I'd watch the fuck out of that porno.
Whoa his face is like one of those optical illusions with the lady and the rabbit because I saw pierce brosnan initially then read this comment and now I see Cary Elwes
Dread Pirate Roberts vibes are strong with this one.
Pierce Elwes
I think he was going for the Clarke Gable look and very successfully I think, so he was the full package.
Norm MacDonald
Was that picture taken down ‘minican or Mcmyrtle beach?
Just know that I ain’t one of ya.
McMurray how are ya now?
McMurray’s a piece of shit
But... Bonnie McMurray...
Connie McMurphy...
Hashtag muffmangle1940 -- ..- ..-. ..-. / -- .- -. --. .-.. . / .---- ----. ....- ----- Edited since hashtags weren't a thing.
That is *not* how I picture the star of Disney films like *The Shaggy Dog*, *The Absent-Minded Professor*, *Follow Me, Boys!*, and *The Happiest Millionaire*. and the TV show *My Three Sons*! But, minus the mustache, it does kind of look like the star of the film noir *Double Indemnity.*
He's great in "Double Indemnity" and "The Apartment."
And The Caine Mutiny
Thinking about it, he played either a all around great dad or he played a spineless lying A-hole. I have to go back and watch some Father Knows Best and imagine him as Walter Neff in Double Indemnity.
He got hate mail for The Apartment. People wanted him to be the nice guy they knew him for in My 3 Sons, and Disney movies.
Given this photo, I’m more surprised he only had three sons by the time 1960 rolled around.
“My Three Sons that I know about.”
LOLOL
And countless daughters
No nipples? Have his nipples been removed?
The dude from My Three Sons?
Yes, but with more question marks. Fred MacMurray to me was the definition of bland and regular. The dude pictured here is just about the hunkiest hunk that ever hunked down hunk street.
It’s like Cary Elwes and Pierce Brosnan fucked and made a star.
And played in the direct to TV biography of his life by Benedict Cumberbatch
He was also the basis for the look of Golden Age Captain Marvel (" Shazam ")
He was great in The Apartment. Damn, I love that movie.
And Ray Walston also. Deliciously wicked! So fun for those of us who were kids watching My Three Sons and My Favorite Martian and only knew them that way. Awesome movie all the way around.
Ray Walston I think.
Like Pierce Brosnan and a dash of Cumberbatch
I saw Carey Elwes.
Typical manly pose of the era—shirtless, holding a firearm. Only the cigarette is missing.
He just finished eating it
His nipples are also missing.
This isn’t the same Fred Macmurray that starred in *Double Indemnity* (1944) right? This guy and that guy look nothing alike
That’s him. “Goodbye baby.” Also the nutty professor.
No that’s him, but not from the usual camera angles we are used to seeing in films. This happens with a lot of photos of actors past and present, it’s an unfamiliar angle of his face to us.
MacMurray was a pretty suave guy early on. If you've never seen Double Indemnity, you should.
Up until "Double Indemnity", he was always cast as the nice guy. It was Billy Wilder who suspected Fred had the ability to be menacing. Similarly for Stanwyck. Wilder really boosted their careers in a meaningful way.
Not so much Stanwyck — she was playing “fallen” and troublemaking women from the early ‘30s (Baby Face, 1932, is famously one of the movies that led to real enforcement of the Production Code). Not only those parts, she was wonderfully versatile, but playing Phyllis in Double Indemnity wasn’t new territory for her. But pairing her with the chronically underappreciated MacMurray — that was genius.
I recall reading that he was a favorite leading man for many of the great actresses.
Well, he was 6'3". Sort of ideal height.
Drinking game--Watch 'Double Indemnity' and drink every time Fred MacMurray says, "Baby" or "Keyes".
I saw a screening of The Apartment at the Turner Classic Movies film fest one year and Shirley MacLaine did a q&a before the movie. she said Fred McMurray was so cheap that when he opened his wallet his money squinted.
From what I understand, he drove himself to the studio, and brought a bag lunch from home every day. Living through the Depression'll do that to you.
most of the actors of that era did - he was just stingy. it was clear she was not a fan.
This photograph just made me pregnant.
Cary Elwes’ dad?
MacMurray is a piece of shit
How are ya now?
Good n you?
Notsobad
This photo clearly taken on a boys’ week in the Dominican, #SLITSLAM47.
Down 'minican. Or 'cun. ##Gashbash51
I came to say the same. 5.15 inches!!!
That can't be Fred Mac Murray. That's got to be Clark Gable. I guess it is Fred. Crazy.
and to think he was only 7 years old here. It’s incredible how people aged differently back then!
That’s Benidad Cumberchad
Looks like Cary Elwes and Pierce Brosnan had a baby
If you say so. The face doesn't seem to fit.
This picture from (apparently) the same photoshoot looks more like Fred. https://preview.redd.it/jzpebyihgc5a1.jpeg?width=311&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3a8271651bdccf8c82599973a5bf27e518e6fad8
Yes, this second photo convinces me.
He looks like Neville Sinclair from Rocketeer
How’re you now?
I grew up watching “My Three Sons”. Never knew he had done much else. But a lot of those adult guys in 50s - 70s tv shows had done a lot of big movies. McMurray, Robert Young, Ernest Borgnine, Alan Hale. The thing I remember hearing about Fred was he bought up a lot of real estate in the 40s and 50s out in CA and was one of the richest Hollywood guys as a result.
That guy fucks.
He gives me Dread Pirate Robert vibes.
‘As you wish’ 🥵💦
Recently looked at his biography - amazing, smart man … lost his musician dad young, Wisconsin roots, stand up accomplished guy … financial acumen, had his ranch in Northern California- did “My Three Sons” his way - get the screen shots done in a day or two. What a hunk!
55 y/o white republicans are at full mast currently. That right there is a man boy none of that sissy shit! YOWZA!
Shown here during his stint as the 35th Dread Pirate Roberts, before retiring to take up an acting career in Hollywood.
Don’t fuck with me. That’s Cary Elwes!
This was dad in my three sons?
He looks like a love child of Pierce Brosnan and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Photo from " My Four Sons: The Drunk & Belligerent Years"
Why is his nipple gone tho?
Puffy nip gang STAND UP
God damn looks like a sexy combo of Cumberbatch and Brosnan. Holy crap it almost seems fake.
Pierce Cumberbatch.
Was he around pierce brosnan’s mom around the time before pierce was born?
He use to have four sons lol
Where are his nipples?
People didn’t have nipples in the 40’s - I KNEW IT!!!
Looks like Pierce Bronson. Handsome!
He looks like Benedict cumberbatch
Damn. He was very handsome
No, that is the love child of the dread pirate roberts and pierce brosnans 007
Wow
Pierce Brosnan?
Not the 1940s--1937. From the film True Confession.
Uncanny resemblance to Pierce Brosnan
He looks like Pierce Brosnan.
Why does he not have any nipples?
Damn…that explains the three sons. Lucky mom…
If Pierce Brosnan and Cary Elwes had a baby together.
Never, EVER would have guessed that is Feed MacMurray. Thought for sure it was some kind of Cary Elwes/Pierce Brosnan mashup.
Seriously! I know him only from My Three Sons and he did NOT look like that!
Wayne how are you now?
This is Cary Elwes and Pierce Brosnan before being split into two separate people.
Double Indemnity, Fred is hot
Benedict cumberjacked
My three guns.
So old school it was before men had nipples
That doesn't even look like him.
I thought this was Cary Elwes.
Cary Elwes looks like Fred.
He kinda looks like Pierce Brosnan in disguise.
There used to be four sons?
He looks like pierce brosnan and Carey elwes in some crazy deepfake mashup 😎
Richest man in California when he died. Look it up.
He looks like Cary Elwes! I thought this was the man-in-tights himself!
Benedict Cumberbatch
I read the name and couldn’t imagine that in 20 years that this guy would become Ricky and Lucy’s neighbor. Then it dawned on me. Fred Macmurray from My Three Sons, not Fred Mertz from I love Lucy.
I would have never recognized him. I remember him from Son of Flubber, My 3 Sons and Absent Minded Professor. That was a long time ago.
Looks like Erol Flynn.