Murray Head (born Murray Seafield Saint-George Head, 5 March 1946, London) is an English actor and singer, most recognized for his hit song, "One Night in Bangkok".
Head was born to Seafield Head, a documentary-maker, and Helen Shingler, an actress. (Helen played Mme. Maigret alongside Rupert Davies in the BBC Television's 1960s television adaptation of the Maigret novels written by Georges Simenon). His younger brother is Buffy the Vampire Slayer star, Anthony Head. Head was educated at the Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle in South Kensington, London and Hampton School in Hampton, London.
He made his film debut in the British film, The Family Way (1966), opposite Hayley Mills and her father John Mills. Head began acting and writing songs as a child, and by the mid 1960s he had a London based recording contract. He had limited success until asked by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber to play Judas Iscariot on the original concept album version of Jesus Christ Superstar (singing the hit "Superstar"). Head won a leading role in the Oscar nominated film, Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), alongside Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson. Despite these successes, he received little public attention in the next ten years (except for his single release, "Say It Ain't So Joe" in 1975). In 1973, he appeared in the radio drama The Fourth Tower of Inverness. In March 1979, Head appeared in the final episode of the ITV programme, Return of the Saint. Head reappeared in the spotlight in 1984, as the American on the concept album for the musical, Chess. The song "One Night in Bangkok", from Chess, featured Head on lead vocal, and became the last significant Broadway/West End number to be a hit on American and German radio up until "No Matter What" by Boyzone in 1996. "One Night in Bangkok" was a major pop hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
After "One Night in Bangkok", Head had little recording success in the UK or The United States. This fact would later be underscored in a radio segment featured on The Kevin and Bean Show on Los Angeles's KROQ FM, in which the hosts would phone Head in the morning to find out "What's up with Murray Head?" But, fluent in French, he has released a number of albums in that language and is more popular in France and Canada. Noticeably, the song "Une femme un homme", a duet with Marie Carmen released in 1993 became a radio hit in French-speaking Canada. In 1999 Head co-wrote the screenplay to Les Enfants du siècle. Some of his most recent work was in Luc Plamondon's musical comedy Cindy (based on the Cinderella story) where he played Cindy's father. More recently, Head has appeared on television in the UK on The Bill, Casualty and Judge John Deed. He also played an artist called Jack Hollins on ITV's Heartbeat from 2005-2006. Amongst his more unusual claims to fame is appearing on the album cover of The Smiths' compilation album, Stop Me, taken from a still of the film The Family Way.
Private life
Head married Susan Ellis Jones in 1972, but they were divorced in 1992. He has two daughters: Katherine and Sophie.
Discography
* 1972 - Nigel Lived
* 1975 - Say It Ain't So
* 1979 - Between Us
* 1981 - Voices
* 1981 - Find the Crowd
* 1983 - Shade
* 1984 - Restless
* 1987 - Sooner or Later
* 1990 - Watching Ourselves Go By
* 1992 - Wave
* 1993 - Innocence
* 1995 - When You're in Love
* 1995 - Pipe Dreams
* 2000 - Innocence (revised edition of Wave)
* 2002 - Passion
* 2005 - Emotions, My Favourite Songs
* 2007 - Tête à Tête
* 2008 - Rien n'est écrit
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