Introduction
Timothy Patrick Murphy (November 3, 1959 – December 6, 1988) was an American actor, perhaps best known for his role as Mickey Trotter on the popular CBS prime time soap opera Dallas from 1982–83.
Career
Murphy started his acting career as an adolescent in several television commercials and from there he went on to act in the 1978 miniseries Centennial. Other than his role in Dallas, he spent more than a year playing a young conman on the CBS daytime soap drama Search for Tomorrow, and also had a regular role on the short-lived 1984 ABC prime-time drama Glitter. In addition to this, he appeared in episodes of the television shows Quincy, M.E., CHiPs, Teachers Only, Hotel, The Love Boat and Hunter.
He appeared in the 1981 film The Bushido Blade. One of Murphy's most substantial roles was in the 1984 feature film Sam's Son, the film biography of the early life of actor Michael Landon, in which he played the character of Gene Orowitz (the young Landon).
Death
Murphy died of AIDS on December 6, 1988 in Sherman Oaks, California, aged 29, and was buried at the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.
He once stated that he had an affair with the allegedly bisexual actor Brad Davis, who had AIDS and committed assisted suicide in 1991.
His younger brother, Patrick Sean Murphy, was killed in the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001.