About Danny Murphy

Danny was born on August 20, 1955 where he grew up with six sisters and a brother in Boston, Massachusetts (Jamaica Plain). He was very active in all sports as a kid and attended Boston Latin School lettering in hockey and golf. Summers were spent on Cape Cod where he started caddying and playing golf at The Country Club of New Seabury at age eight. He won his first caddy championship at thirteen. Golf was his summer passion. In his teens, he became a greenskeeper at the country club and a private landscaper. On August 8, 1974, in the summer of his freshman year at Stonehill College, Danny and a group of friends, including Peter Farrelly, sailed to Martha's Vineyard from Falmouth. On this trip he dove into shallow water in Oak Bluffs Harbor, broke his neck and became a C-6 spinal cord injured (SCI) quadriplegic.

After a year of rehabilitation at the Massachusetts General and Braintree Hospitals, Danny returned to Stonehill graduating in 1979 with a Criminal Justice degree. He went on to work for Liberty Mutual Insurance Company ('79-'84), then Lotus Development Corporation ('84-'92) developing skills in sales and management. Danny was married in 1988. He designed and built a custom accessible home in West Roxbury, Mass. Seeking a more suitable lifestyle, he and his wife moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1992 where he found his replacement for his lost passion of playing golf: sailing on Miami’s Biscayne Bay with www.ShakeALegMiami.org. Danny also got heavily involved in Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)/accessibility businesses and became a disability advocate. He helped develop two new companies and served on numerous boards in Florida. He was divorced in 1995.

In 1995, after teasing old friend Peter Farrelly about not having wheelchair users in his first movie, “DUMB and DUMBER”, Pete invited him to play a role in his second feature film: "KINGPIN". Another invitation came for "THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY" and then"ME, MYSELF, and IRENE". Danny soon began to study acting in Hollywood, Florida where he started auditioning and co-hosted a TV pilot show called "DISABILITY SPEAKING".

In 2000, Danny decided to relocate to Los Angeles to study and pursue the film business full time. He continues to appear in Farrelly Brothers films while also securing roles in theatre and television. Danny has also had the very unique and good fortune to play able bodied roles in such feature films as: "SAY IT ISN'T SO", "OSMOSIS JONES", and “SHALLOW HAL” as well as small independent movies; a feat unmatched by any other performer with a disability.

While pursuing his acting career in LA, Danny produced his own theatre and film projects and has been very active with the Media Access Office (MAO) which helps performers with disabilities (PWD) break into the acting industry. He is also highly supportive of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Paralysis Foundation (CDRF) and was a participant at the Human Locomotion Research Center at U.C.L.A. in 2004 and 2005 with Doctor Susan Harkema.

After years of advocacy work for PWD, Danny was appointed National Vice Chair of the Screen Actors Guild Performers with Disabilities Committee by Robert David Hall (Dr. Robbins, CSI). He is a co founder of the www.IAMPWD.org international PR campaign for PWDs representing the three major acting unions: SAG, AFTRA, and Equity. In 2008, Danny co founded a new theatre company for performers with disabilities, Blue Zone Productions. He starred in and produced the initial play: “The History of Bowling” by Mike Ervin and received great reviews. He then went on to produced: “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” And he was also the co founder of a film production company called Options Entertainment, L.L.C.

In 2011, Danny relocated back east in Florida to be closer to friends and family. He remains very active in the film industry as an actor and advocate while developing his new marketing consulting and speaking business.