- Born
- Birth nameFahrid Murray Abraham
- Height1.80 m
- Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham was born on October 24, 1939 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in El Paso, Texas. His father, Fred Abraham, was a Syrian (Antiochian Orthodox Christian) immigrant. His mother, Josephine (Stello) Abraham, was the daughter of Italian immigrants. Born with the first name "Murray", he added an "F." to distinguish his stage name.
Primarily a stage actor, Abraham made his screen debut as an usher in George C. Scott's comedy Le rivage oublié (1971). By the mid-1970s, Murray had steady employment as an actor, doing commercials and voice-over work. He can be seen as one of the undercover police officers along with Al Pacino in Sidney Lumet's Serpico (1973), and in television roles including the villain in one third-season episode of Kojak (1973). His film work of those years also included the roles of a cabdriver in Le prisonnier de la deuxième avenue (1975), a mechanic in Ennemis comme avant (1975), and a police officer in Les Hommes du président (1976).
Beyond these small roles, Abraham continued to do commercials and voice-over work for income. But in 1978, he decided to give them up. Frustrated with the lack of substantial roles, Abraham said, "No one was taking my acting seriously. I figured if I didn't do it, then I'd have no right to the dreams I've always had". His wife, Kate Hannan, went to work as an assistant and Abraham became a "house husband". He described, "I cooked and cleaned and took care of the kids. It was very rough on my macho idea of life. But it was the best thing that ever happened to me". Abraham appeared as drug dealer Omar Suárez alongside Pacino again in the gangster film Scarface (1983). He also gained visibility voicing a talking bunch of grapes in a series of television commercials for Fruit of the Loom underwear.
In 1985, he was honored with as Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for the acclaimed role of envious composer Antonio Salieri in Amadeus (1984), an award for which Tom Hulce, playing Mozart in that movie, had also been nominated. He was also honored with a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama, among other awards, and his role in the film, is still considered to be his most iconic as the film's director Milos Forman inspired the work of the role with Abraham's wide range of qualities as a great stage and film actor.
After Amadeus, he next appeared in Le Nom de la rose (1986), in which he played Bernardo Gui, nemesis to Sir Sean Connery as William of Baskerville. In the DVD audio commentary, his director on the film, Jean-Jacques Annaud, described Abraham as an "egomaniac" on the set, who considered himself more important than Sean Connery, since Connery did not have an Oscar. That said, the film was a critical success. Abraham had tired of appearing as villains and wanted to return to his background in comedy, as he also explained to People Weekly magazine in an interview he gave at the time of its release.- IMDb mini biography by: Pedro Borges
- SpouseKate Hannan(April 7, 1962 - November 19, 2022) (her death, 2 children)
- ChildrenMick AbrahamJamili Abraham
- ParentsFrederick AbrahamJosephine Abraham
- RelativesJack Abraham(Sibling)Robert Abraham(Sibling)
- Rich smooth voice.
- Often plays untrustworthy schemers.
- Often plays villains.
- He filmed Scarface (1983) in Los Angeles, California at the same time as Amadeus (1984) in Prague, Czech Republic, necessitating four round trip flights between the two films.
- During a ceremony in Rome, he was awarded the "Premio per gli Italiani nel Mondo". This is a prize distributed by the Marzio Tremaglia Foundation and the Italian government to Italian emigrants and their descendants who have distinguished themselves abroad.
- One of his first plays in Los Angeles was a dramatization of a work by Ray Bradbury: "The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit". He and Bradbury remained friends until Bradbury's death on June 5, 2012.
- Attended the University of Texas at El Paso and the University of Texas at Austin.
- He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and brought up in El Paso, Texas. His father, Fred Abraham, was a Syrian immigrant, of the Antiochian Orthodox faith. His mother, Josephine (Stello) Abraham, was also born in Pennsylvania, to Italian parents.
- [from the Star Trek : Insurrection (1998) Special Collector's Edition DVD] If I could do only Star Trek movies for the rest of my career, I would. That's how strongly I feel about this organization. I do not say that lightly.
- [on the so-called "Oscar jinx"] The Oscar is the single most important event of my career. I have dined with kings, shared equal billing with my idols, lectured at Harvard and Columbia. If this is a jinx, I'll take two. Even though I won the Oscar, I can still take the subway in New York, and nobody recognizes me. Some actors might find that disconcerting, but I find it refreshing.
- [accepting his Best Actor Oscar, 1985] It would be a lie if I told you I didn't know what to say, because I've been working on this speech for about twenty-five years. But you're not going to hear any of those speeches, because none of the speeches were less than forty-five seconds. You know, it's easy to gamble everything when you've got nothing to lose, and Milos Forman had a great deal to lose when he gave these brilliant roles to Tom Hulce and me, and his courage became my inspiration. There's only one thing that's missing for me tonight, and that's to have Tom Hulce standing by my side.
- [announcing Geraldine Page as the winner of the Best Actress Oscar, 1986] I consider this woman the greatest actress in the English language.
- You keep getting offered the same role you got the Oscar for. Every time you complain, they don't change the script; they just offer you more money. For the first 15 years of my career, I was only doing comedy - all comedy - and as soon as Salieri happened, I was offered all sinister villains.
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