MovieChat Forums > Charley and the Angel (1973) Discussion > How old was Fred MacMurray in 1973?

How old was Fred MacMurray in 1973?

posted 21 years ago by raysond
2 replies | jump to latest

He was around 67 years old when he did this feature which will become the last movie he would ever do in Hollywood and also the last Disney feature that he would starred in. At the time this film was released in 1973,MacMurray made a comeback to feature films after his 13 year hiatus on television as father figure Steve Douglas on the family hit series "My Three Sons". Its amazing that the folks at Disney cast him as a father figure since he was really too old for the part. That amazes me as well,how old was Harry Morgan? Morgan was 59 years old at the time and during this time he was doing double duty in several feature films and also on television as Detective Bill Gannon on TV's "Dragnet" and also later during the mid-1970's as Colonel Harry Potter on TV's "M*A*S*H".

[–] vinidici 13 years ago

There IS such a thing as men becoming fathers for the first time late in life, you know. But I'd guess MacMurray was a good 10 years older than the character he played.

As for Morgan, I believe "Dragnet" had ceased production two or three years prior to "Charley and the Angel."

[–] raysond 13 years ago

From previous comment:
"As for Harry Morgan, I believe "Dragnet" had ceased production two or three years prior to "Charley and the Angel"

For the record:
"Dragnet" ended production in 1970,after NBC canceled the series after three seasons. After "Dragnet" ended actor-producer Jack Webb stayed at NBC to produced two great shows of the early 1970's...
"Adam-12",and "Emergency!"...Did you know that two of the stars of "Emergency!"..Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe went on to get their very own Saturday Morning cartoon show that was also produced by Jack Webb. Harry Morgan was a special guest star in an episode of "Adam-12" that was also directed by Harry Morgan.

As for Harry Morgan,he went to star in theatrical feature films,most of them for Disney during the early 1970's like "Charley and the Angel","Snowball Express",and "The Apple Dumpling Gang".

By 1975,Harry Morgan was back on series television,this time around as Colonel Henry Potter on M*A*S*H.
Morgan,by the way replaced MacLean Stevenson on the show. Morgan was on M*A*S*H* from 1975 until the show's final episode in 1983.