Owned Dudley Murphy's Holiday House, a popular oceanfront restaurant and hotel in Malibu (CA) from the 1950s through the 1970s that was frequented by many Hollywood stars.
His father, prominent Boston School painter Herman Dudley Murphy, was head of the art school at Harvard University.
His children include: a stillborn son, son Michael, and daughters Poco and Erin (born in 1951).
He has a grandson, Sebastian Li.
Idiosyncratic American director of the 1920s and '30s, a former journalist. Output varied wildly from modernist avant-garde to routine studio programmers.