Murray was born in
Greenock,
Renfrewshire. He began his career as a musician in amateur groups such as "The Whinhillbillies" and "Chic and His Chicks" while an apprentice at the Kincaid shipyard in 1934. Maidie Dickson (1922–2010) - Murray's future wife - was already a seasoned star in her own right (having worked since she was 3, when she was playing the Greenock Empire). Chic's mother was the welfare officer and put Maidie up in her home. Subsequently, Maidie gave Chic parts within her own act and he formed a double-act with her. Billed as "The Tall Droll with the Small Doll" (he was 6'3" tall, she was 4'11") and also as "Maidie and Murray", their combination of jokes and songs made them popular on television and in theatres throughout the country. Their success peaked in 1956 when they were selected to appear in the
Royal Variety Performance at the
London Palladium, but, due to the
Suez Crisis, the show was cancelled. Maidie and Chic had had much success at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London. Later, working as a solo act, with a forbidding expression and omnipresent
bunnet, Murray offered a comic vision of the world that was absurd and surreal. One example was his early-1970s
BBC Scotland series ''Chic's Chat'', where his version of acting as DJ for the (occasional) records he played was unique. The show also featured surreal dialogues with a "man at the window" of his studio, played by Willie Joss, who invariably referred to Murray by the name of "Chips". Another was his eccentrically decorated hotel in the
Bruntsfield area of
Edinburgh, which did not outlive the 1980s. Murray acted in films such as
Casino Royale and ''
Gregory's Girl, in which he played a Scottish secondary school headmaster. He also played former Liverpool Football Club manager Bill Shankly in the musical play You'll Never Walk Alone''. Just prior to the show opening, Murray claimed to have telephoned the switchboard at Anfield using his Shankly voice, causing the receptionist – who had worked there in the Shankly years – to burst into tears on hearing his voice once more. He also made cameo appearances as an itinerant poacher in a few episodes of
STV's soap
Take The High Road (1984) and appeared alongside
Judi Dench in
Saigon: Year of the Cat (1983) as a bank manager. One of Murray's last TV appearances was as a first-footer on the BBC Scotland Hogmanay show
Live into 85, an ill-fated programme that was notorious for its numerous problems during the live broadcast, including Murray himself who appeared flustered and confused by the various incidents involved, and became too bewildered to perform and spent his segment berating the floor manager. He died in Edinburgh in 1985 after he suffered a perforated ulcer at the age of 65, next door to his former wife Maidie's bedroom. (They had divorced in the 1970s but remained on good terms.) Tributes during his funeral at
Mortonhall Crematorium were led by fellow Scottish comedian
Billy Connolly. Maidie Dickson died in Edinburgh in 2010, at the age of 88. == Legacy ==