Portrait of Barbara Murray

Birthday profile

Barbara Murray

Barbara Murray, English actress (died 2014)

Born
September 27, 1929
Died
May 20, 2014
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1929

About Barbara Murray

Barbara Ann Murray (27 September 1929 – 20 May 2014) was an English actress. Murray was most active in the 1940s and 1950s as a fresh-faced leading lady in many British films such as Passport to Pimlico (1949), Meet Mr. Lucifer (1953) and Doctor in the House (1954). She continued with film work into the 1960s (including a role in the Tony Hancock film The Punch and Judy Man) but appeared more frequently on television. She played Mrs Hauksbee in 7 episodes of the TV dramatisations of Rudyard Kipling's Plain Tales from the Hills, from 1964. She is possibly best known for her role as Lady Pamela Wilder in the 1960s drama series The Plane Makers (and the sequel, The Power Game). Her other TV credits include: The Escape of R.D.7, Danger Man, Never a Cross Word, The Saint, Department S, Strange Report, His and Hers, The Widow of Bath, The Pallisers, based on Anthony Trollope's series of novels (in which she played a major role as Madame Max Goesler, a wealthy foreign widow), The Mackinnons, Doctor Who, Albert and Victoria, Robin's Nest 1978 and The Bretts. In 1976, she spent six weeks in hospital after breaking her jaw, when a car in which she was travelling was involved in a collision, during a British Council-sponsored acting tour of Brazil: "Fortunately, I was lucky and there were no marks on my face," she reflected. Murray had three daughters from her marriage to the actor John Justin, but after twelve years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1964. That same year, Murray married Bill "Peter" Holmes, an English literature teacher and former film actor (using the "Peter" first name); this marriage also ended in divorce.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Barbara Murray was born

Barbara Murray was born in 1929. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1929

  • #1 song"Singin' in the Rain"
  • Top movieThe Broadway Melody (first Best Picture winner)
  • Best-selling bookA Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst baseball All-Star Game proposed
  • Top headlineStock market crashes on Black Tuesday
  • Technology milestoneFirst Academy Awards ceremony held
  • Defining fadYo-yos
  • Notable inventionCar radio
  • World population2.10 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHerbert Hoover
  • Sports championPhiladelphia Athletics (World Series)
  • U.S. population121.8M

1929 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Barbara Murray's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19292026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$6,300$435,000
Average income$3,850$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population121.8M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.