Charles Kimbrough, a star of MURPHY Brown, has away at the age of 86.
The news was confirmed by Kimbrough’s son without a cause of death being stated.
According to his son, Kimbrough passed away in Culver City, California, on January 11, 2023.
The actor gained notoriety for his performance on the Murphy Brown TV series from the 1990s, which was based on a fictitious television news magazine. Kimbrough co-starred with Candice Bergen in the film’s titular role as the grouchy, veteran TV anchor Jim Dial.
He was a member of the main cast for the whole show’s 10-season run from 1988 to 1998, and he later played the same role again for the show’s one-season revival in 2018, according to TMZ.
Every single first-run episode of the show included the actor.
Kimbrough “developed an entire biography for his character before he started to portray him,” Murphy Brown creator Diane English reportedly told the Archive of American Television in 2007, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
But before to television, Kimbrough was a devoted theatrical performer who starred in the original Broadway cast of the musical Company by Stephen Sondheim.
He was nominated for a Tony award in 1971 for his performance as Harry in the well-known Broadway play, claims the source.
A little over a decade later, in Sondheim’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Sunday in the Park with George in 1984, he would play two more significant theatrical parts.
From the 1970s to the early 2000s, the actor appeared in a number of roles on both the big and small screens, but according to TMZ, it was his voice that helped him have a late-career comeback in the 1990s.
Disney cult classic Kimbrough was assigned the role of Victor the gargoyle in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Character acting skills of the late celebrity were used in shows like Recess, Hercules, Pinky and the Brain, and even The Angry Beavers.
“Charlie is the most lovable, lanky, rubbery, sweet, adorable man,” English said.
“When he came in to read for us as Jim Dial, he brought it all there: ramrod posture, anchor voice, slick-back hair.
“He brought a credibility to the character. We didn’t want a Ted Baxter version of this guy. We wanted the real deal.”
In 1990, he got his Emmy nomination for best comedy actor.
Kimbrough leaves behind one son named John.
