Maureen Murphy update

Hi Ed -

Yes, I have now approved the birthdate submission.  Cheers!

This (https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/maureen-murphy-obituary?pid=191364162) is NOT the same Maureen Murphy (born January 20, 1940), who is the daughter of Gladys Florence and sister of Eileen Norma Murphy. Different person, fairly common name. 1939 date of birth added by Michelle is inaccurate as this legacy.com page refers to a different woman. 

Yours. 

Right, Maureen Patricia Murphy (born January 20, 1940; that birthdate submission was made and declined already), daughter of Gladys Florence, about whom I created a separate conversation.  

Her name at birth (Maureen Patricia Murphy) and date of birth (January 20, 1940) were from ancestry.com but I am not at the library right now to access it. It was included in prior submissions which were declined. I'll submit that data when I can capture it next at the library. Daughter of Gladys Florence (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2340291/) who has an IMDb page which is bizarre, to say the least -- a 105 year old woman acting, directing, writing, producing, casting, and editing -- with one credit to her name. I already opened a conversation about this bizarre page here: https://getsatisfaction.com/imdb/topics/gladys-florence 

As far as "No results found for Maureen Patricia Murphy", check Maureen Murphy without the middle name -- I just added middle name to point out that it is not the same person as the Maureen Elizabeth Murphy found at https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/maureen-murphy-obituary?pid=191364162 who has no history in acting. Again, it is a common name. I know nothing about the Australian individual (https://www.famousfix.com/topic/maureen-murphy) but the credits DO match IMDb credits, although Maureen Murphy was born in England to Gladys and John Murphy and lived in California -- I do not believe she was ever an Australian national. 

The March 23, 1939 date of birth is incorrect IN ANY EVENT as that was the date of birth in the bio found at https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/maureen-murphy-obituary?pid=191364162, which pertains to a woman from Oregon was had nothing to do with show business. Better to leave the date of birth out until (if ever) it can be confirmed. I see no proof of date of death or any obituary aside from the one at legacy.com which pertains to a different woman with same first and last names, and find it seriously questionable. 

Whew.

Yours.

Hey, Ed. I know this has become more complicated than I realized but something doesn't add up. Maureen Elizabeth Murphy who died in Oregon (whose date of birth you are going by) had nothing to do with acting and was not British and/or Australian. Her mother was Gertrude Keber Murphy. Given her extensive curriculum vitae ("A world-class swimmer, Maureen trained in her youth and teen years at the Northeast YMCA in Hollywood and the Multnomah Athletic Club in downtown Portland, where she remained an active lifetime member. Swimming for the MAC, she won the AAU national championship in the 200-yard backstroke in 1955, earning All-America honors and qualifying for the U.S. exhibition team that competed in Europe and the Middle East that year. She represented the United States again in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, placing 5th in the 100-meter backstroke. She was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. After retiring from competitive swimming, Maureen taught at Air Force bases in Pirmasens and Kaiserslautern, Germany, before returning home to teach in the Portland public schools and at her alma mater, All Saints. She worked as a salesperson for IBM in Reno, Atlanta and Portland and for the Halton Company in Portland. In her later years, she was a Realtor."), I am pretty sure if she had been an actress/comedienne, her obit would have reflected that, as it includes everything else she did in her life

This link here: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-dec-20-la-me-lopez20-2009dec20-story.html (hope you have a subscription to the L.A. Times) was the first source I came upon which establishes that Gladys Florence Murphy (nee Norman; later Ryan), called Gladys Florence, is the mother of Maureen [Patricia] Murphy and dancer Eileen Norma Murphy (born 1943; resident in California). Whether this Gladys Florence who was 96 in 2009 (1913 year of birth) is the actress who actually appeared in the Caravaggio film (http://downjup282.weebly.com/blog/online-streaming-caravaggio-and-my-mother-the-pope-with-english-su...), which she is credited by IMDb with acting, writing, casting, editing, producing and directing or whether it was another actress with the same name (https://www.linkedin.com/in/gladys-florence-24442a103) is up to you guys to determine but I am thinking it's the latter, which means the IMDb page for Gladys Florence (which names actress Maureen Murphy as her daughter, btw) needs some serious review. 

As far as "Remember this, I remember her appearances on Carson. So I know what she looks like" -- OK, there is a slight similarity but (https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/name/maureen-murphy-obituary?pid=191364162) I don't know. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say.  

Yours.

Again, once I can access the ancestry.com records, which I submitted previously with prior submissions, I can re-send but I don't know if they will mean anything since Gladys Florence Norman Murphy Ryan (born 1913) is apparently/likely not the actress of the "Caravaggio and My Mother the Pope" film so her connection to Maureen Murphy becomes less important, I guess. I still believe it is highly unlikely that the American woman and the British/Australian comedienne/actress have the same date of birth or are connected in any way other than having a fairly common name. Which means the date of death is suspect as the non-American is apparently still alive. There is a fairly worthless Wikipedia article which doesn't have a photo and tells us nothing that is not included in this colloquy/thread, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maureen_Murphy_(comedian). 

OK, first and last "dude", LOL. I see the March 1939 date of birth has been added. I respectfully disagree because (similarity in photos notwithstanding) the actress is not the same woman as the 1939 Murphy who had nothing to do with show business as per the extensive curriculum vitae ("A world-class swimmer, Maureen trained in her youth and teen years at the Northeast YMCA in Hollywood and the Multnomah Athletic Club in downtown Portland, where she remained an active lifetime member. Swimming for the MAC, she won the AAU national championship in the 200-yard backstroke in 1955, earning All-America honors and qualifying for the U.S. exhibition team that competed in Europe and the Middle East that year. She represented the United States again in the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, placing 5th in the 100-meter backstroke. She was inducted into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. After retiring from competitive swimming, Maureen taught at Air Force bases in Pirmasens and Kaiserslautern, Germany, before returning home to teach in the Portland public schools and at her alma mater, All Saints. She worked as a salesperson for IBM in Reno, Atlanta and Portland and for the Halton Company in Portland. In her later years, she was a Realtor.") included in her obituary but I know it will stand until I can prove it wrong. Will try to check ancestry.com to find the url that shows her date of birth as January 20, 1940. 

Yours.

If the images match then that is likely a better source of verification, at least for now. If you find out that this isn't the case then please feel free to submit the data with any sources and our editors will be happy to take a look.

Thanks,
Will

I agree. I don’t think it is the same woman. I find it very hard to believe that the person who was an Olympian swimmer and had a career with IBM would have enough time to also become an established comedian and actress. Both take a number of years to achieve. Further more, if you compare the two pictures, the hair style is similar but is parted on opposite sides. I find it strange that a person would keep the same style but change the side they parted their hair.

Jane Doyle -- Of course it is not the same woman. The same-named woman (born 1939 - died 2019) was American and had no connection to acting or entertainment. The actress (born 20 January 1940) is a Brit! The woman IMDB is confusing Maureen Murphy with appears to be an Aussie comedian known as Mauro Murphy.

Ed -- ya know I like you but you are barking up the wrong tree this time, LOL.

Jane Doyle, I'm not talking about that case, but in cases like that keep in mind that unusual career combinations do happen. For example Erland van Lidth was a character actor, professional opera singer, semi-professional wrestler as well as professional programmer who taught computer programmer in Manhattan Community College.