James Murtaugh on Aliens in the Family
James Murtaugh (b. 1942) is a character actor who played Carl Wattman in the Aliens in the Family episode "Dissected and Neglected."
Alternating between Los Angeles and New York City in the 1970s and '80s, Murtaugh made the TV guest rounds on Kojak, The Rockford Files, Alice, Barney Miller, Magnum, P.I., Tenspeed and Brown Shoe, and Hill Street Blues. He was busy in TV commercials, including a 1980s campaign for A-1 as Jerry, who praises the steak sauce to everyone in earshot. Later sticking to NY TV projects, the by-then balding Murtaugh often played judges and other authority types on NYPD Blue, The Sopranos, Madam Secretary, Third Watch, Elementary, Evil, and several Law & Order incarnations (including Organized Crime).
Films include All the President's Men, John Landis's The Howling, Malcolm X, Romeo Is Bleeding, Private Parts, Vanilla Sky, Invincible, Out of Time, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. On Broadway, he performed in Two Shakespearean Actors and a 1998 revival of Ah, Wilderness, while voice-overs include a PBS documentary on the Spanish-American War and the video game Red Dead Redemption II.