The Arts

Southold actress Peg Murray and the many roles she played

Peg Murray with playwright Tennessee Williams (right) in his play 'Small Craft Warnings' in the early 1970s.
Peg Murray with playwright Tennessee Williams (right) in his play ‘Small Craft Warnings’ in the early 1970s.

Desiring a slower pace, Ms. Murray moved to her secluded North Fork home around 1970. But she didn’t give up acting: That same year, she replaced Helena Carroll in the role of Leona in Tennessee Williams’ play “Small Craft Warnings.”

The incomparable playwright wrote the following about Ms. Murray in his 1975 memoir: “It will be exciting to see a gifted actress, after such short preparation, take over the demanding role of Leona and to see us all up there giving her our support, covering the almost inevitable ‘fluffs’ as best we can, and loving her as actors must love each other on such critical occasions, if there is love in this world, and I think there is.”

In the 1980s, Ms. Murray joined the cast of “All My Children” and played the role of Olga Swenson for 13 years.

“That was for the money,” she said. “I nearly fainted the first time they gave me a check.”

Between takes, she wrote plays for Northeast Stage in Greenport.

In 1986, Ms. Murray won a role as Ethel Conklin, the lead character in the short-lived NBC sitcom “Me and Mrs. C.”

“I hated every minute of it,” she said.

As much as she still loves the theater, however, Ms. Murray said she has no plans to keep acting.

“It’s not the work — I love to act,” she said. “I find it very easy and they pay me and I’m always surprised. It’s putting on the damn stockings and the high heels and going up and down stairs and greeting people after the show. That I’ve had. I’ve just had it. When you’re in a Broadway show it’s like going to the gym three hours a day.”

That doesn’t mean Ms. Murray has had an easy time adjusting to a life off stage.

“I had a hard time — I still do — with not working,” she said. “I don’t want to, but on the other hand I miss it. Sometimes I don’t know how I did it.”