Born to Maleta Martin and Frederick MacMurray (concert violinist). Fred sang and played in orchestras to earn tuition. He was educated at Carroll College, Wis. Fred played with a Chicago orchestra for more than a year. Then he joined an orchestra in Hollywood where he played, did some recording and played extra roles. He then joined a comedy stage band, California Collegians, and went to New York. There he joined "Three's A Crowd" revue on Broadway and on the road. After this show closed, he returned to California and worked in vaudeville. He played the vaudeville circuits and night clubs until cast for major role in "Roberta". Signed by Paramount in 1935.


Personal friends with Walt Disney. Adopted twin daughters, Kathryn and Laurie (b. 1956), with Haver. At his insistence, all episodes of "My Three Sons" (1960) were filmed out of sequence during the show's entire run. He would do all of his scenes first, then leave until the next season. All kitchen scenes would be done together, then all scenes in the upstairs hallway would be filmed together, etc. This fact was well concealed until Dawn Lyn joined the cast as Dodie. Her upper front teeth grew in irregularly during the entire 1969-'70 season, from being barely visible in scenes with MacMurray to being plainly visible in scenes without him. Early in his career, he recorded a song called "If I Had A Talking Picture Of You." Steve Douglas, MacMurray's character on "My Three Sons" (1960), was ranked #7 in TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Dads of All Time" [20 June 2004 issue]. 1970s: He was most often seen doing commercials for a video teaching "Chisenbop," a Korean method of doing math on your fingers. He was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party who joined Bob Hope and James Stewart in campaigning for Richard Nixon in 1968. When offered the job as the dad on "My Three Sons" (1960), he was given a dream contract in which he only had to work 65 days a year on the series. The supporting cast, as a result, often had to shoot their scenes opposite a prop person off camera instead of Fred. The popular series ran 12 seasons. Met first wife Lillian ("Lily") Lamonte while performing on Broadway in "Roberta" in 1933. She was a dancer. One of his first jobs in Los Angeles was playing in a pit orchestra for an L.A. theater. Quite the high school athlete. He won ten letters for athletics and a scholarship to Carroll College in Wisconsin to play football. He played the saxophone for extra money while there. Was in consideration for the role of Joe Gillis in Sunset Blvd. (1950) but William Holden, who received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance, was cast instead. He never took an acting lesson.