“The two films I did with Billy Wilder, ‘Double Indemnity’ (1944) and the ‘The Apartment’ (1960), are the only two parts I did in my entire career that required any acting.”
Fred MacMurray initially turned down his most famous movie role in “Double Indemnity” because he didn’t think his fans would want to see him playing a darker character.
Alan Ladd, George Raft, Brian Donlevy, James Cagney, Spencer Tracy, Gregory Peck, and Fredric March were all up for the leading role of Walter Neff, but evidently all passed on the role.
Due to strict wartime food rationing, policemen were stationed in the store where a scene with MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck was filmed, to make sure nobody on the film crew was tempted to take away any of the food.
Paramount released publicity stills showing four policemen in the store with MacMurray and Stanwyck.
Wilder claimed that MacMurray was a very stingy man in real life and liked to relate an amusing incident from the filming of “The Apartment.”. In one scene, MacMurray was supposed to tip a shoeshine man and the script called for him to flip him a quarter.
When MacMurray couldn’t get it right during shooting, Wilder suggested using a bigger fifty cent piece.
MacMurray objected because, he said, “I would never give him fifty cents – I cannot play the scene!”
In 1961, MacMurray took his family to Disneyland, and a woman came up to him and asked, “Are you Fred MacMurray?”.When he replied that he was, she hit him with her purse and told him she had taken her children to see him in “The Apartment” and was furious because “that was not a Disney movie!”.
He responded, “No, ma’am, it wasn’t.” He then turned to his wife and announced he was done playing bad guys in movies. (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, Fred MacMurray!