Murray Hamilton

The Nautical Jacket and the Denial of Danger

One piece of clothing defines Murray Hamilton's career better than any script ever could. It's that blue jacket with white anchor prints worn by Mayor Larry Vaughn in Jaws as he ignores the evidence of a great white shark devouring swimmers. Hamilton didn't need to shout to project that mix of incompetent authority and political pragmatism that made him indispensable in 1960s and 1970s Hollywood.

He was born in North Carolina in 1923. Before stepping onto a film set, he worked in radio and theater, but his face fit better in the chiaroscuro of film noir. In 1959 he worked under Otto Preminger in Anatomy of a Murder. He played the bartender who witnesses the crime that is key to the plot. It was a brief role, but it was enough for the industry to realize that Hamilton was the perfect supporting actor to carry a scene opposite stars such as James Stewart.

He mastered the art of being hated without ever losing his composure.

In 1967 he landed the role of Mr. Robinson in The Graduate. He plays the deceived husband who embodies the rigidity of one generation facing the drift of Benjamin Braddock. Hamilton brought a dry coolness that served as a counterpoint to the hysteria of Anne Bancroft. And although audiences will always remember the woman's leg, it was the husband's look of disappointment that closed the film's dramatic circle.

The Man Who Refused to Close the Beaches

Shooting Jaws in 1975 was a logistical nightmare. While the mechanical shark sank and Robert Shaw drank more than he should have on the Martha's Vineyard set, Hamilton kept his composure in his anchor-print suit. His mayor was not a standard villain (he was a administrator worried about the local economy). That subtlety made the character feel terrifyingly real to the audience.

And the gamble paid off.

He reprised the role in Jaws 2 in 1978 because no one else could embody that denial of reality with such elegance. He wasn't a method actor, but he understood how power works. His characters were usually men in neckties who made wrong decisions for logical reasons. That was his great contribution to the genre cinema of the era.

He never sought top billing on the poster.

He worked steadily in television until the end. In 1986 he played Blanche Devereaux's father on the series The Golden Girls. It was one of his last jobs before lung cancer claimed his life that same year. Hamilton died on September 17, 1986 in Washington, North Carolina. He was 63 years old. His last film, The Last Days of Patton, was released posthumously just a few days after his funeral.