Star Of Murphy Brown Has Passed Away
Charles Kimbrough of Murphy Brown has passed away at age 86.
Charles Kimbrough, star of the famed ’80s sitcom Murphy Brown has died. The New York Times reports that Kimbrough, who played Jim Dial for 248 episodes of the television classic, passed away earlier this year in Culver City, California. The actor reportedly died on January 11, but his son John Kimbrough didn’t alert the Times until yesterday.
No reason was given for the delay. Also, absent from John’s report were any details pertaining to the cause of the Murphy Brown star’s death. Charles Kimbrough was 86 at the time of his death.
Kimbrough was active in Hollywood for nearly 60 years, starting out on the soap opera Another World in the ’60s and continuing to act up until the Murphy Brown reboot in 2018 — Kimbrough’s last credited role. He had a long and varied career, including guest spots on Kojack and All My Children. The actor also made the leap to the big screen, appearing in films such as The Wedding Planner and Marci X.
However, Charles Kimrough’s most famous role was the aforementioned Murphy Brown. Murphy Brown featured the misadventures of Candice Bergen as the title character, a journalist for the FYI News Network, and her colleagues. Kimrough’s Jim Dial was a veteran anchor who called Murphy “slugger” and often reminisced about what he considered the glory days of broadcast journalism.
Murphy Brown was quite controversial for its time. An early ’90s storyline about Brown choosing to raise a child as a single mother drew the ire of then vice president Dan Quayle. Quayle took issue with Murphy Brown as a character “mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone.”
Charles Kimbrough was also a star of the stage and was even nominated for a Tony for best-featured actor in a musical as Harry in Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company. The musical is also where Kimbrough met his second wife and fellow television royalty, Alice actress Beth Howland.
Aside from his live-action roles, Charles was an accomplished voice-over artist. The Murphy Brown actor did voices on the Recess, Batman Beyond, Angry Beavers, and The Zeta Project, just to name a few. Kimbrough’s most popular animated role was the gargoyle Victor in the Disney animated classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame, a role he reprised for a direct-to-video sequel and, most recently, an entry in the popular Kingdom Hearts series of video games.
Not many actors can boast a career as varied as Charles Kimbrough’s. Few, if any, in Hollywood are as equally comfortable on a broadway stage, a television backlot, or a voice-over booth as Charles was. Kimbrough was a true jack-of-all-trades.
Charles Kimbrough left behind a body of work any actor would be proud of. With provocative shows like Murphy Brown, he tapped into the cultural zeitgeist in a way that shows like Cheers or Wings never managed to. He is an important part of television history, and fans everywhere will miss him dearly. Our condolences are with Charles Kimbrough’s son, John, as well as any other surviving family the late actor may have.
