Occupation Assassin Last appearance "Obsessed" (season 7) TV show MacGyver | Family Ashton (sister) First appearance "Partners" (season 2) | |
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Portrayed by Michael Des BarresDavid Dastmalchian (2016 series) Similar Peter Thornton, Jack Dalton, Penny Parker, Angus MacGyver, Harry Jackson | ||
Fave murdoc moments
Murdoc is a fictional character in the ABC television series MacGyver, played by Michael Des Barres. Murdoc is an assassin working for the Homicide International Trust, an international group of assassins. He appears in a total of nine episodes, being the most frequent antagonist of the series and one of the very few to actually make recurring appearances.
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Character
Murdoc is Angus MacGyver's most frequent opponent, a member of Homicide International Trust (HIT) and master assassin who never fails – except when MacGyver gets involved. Murdoc is an accomplished pianist, a master of disguise, as well as creative and highly skilled in the use of booby traps. He is also very fond of heavy weapons, including flamethrowers, bazookas, and dynamite. Murdoc's signature for each hit is to take photographs of his victim at the moment of their death. MacGyver first encountered Murdoc in 1980: Murdoc was being followed by Peter Thornton, and MacGyver comes to Pete's aid. Their interaction convinces Pete to hire MacGyver to work with him at the DXS. At the end of this encounter, Murdoc had apparently been killed.
Murdoc's next appearance is seven years later; he has resurfaced to take revenge on MacGyver for foiling his plans during their first encounter. Murdoc's revenge scheme not only fails, but once again results in his apparent death. This became a recurring theme with the character: resurfacing after an apparent death, only to fail and appear to die again. This "near death" cycle occurred a total of six times throughout the series. He has survived, among other things, falling down an abandoned mine shaft, driving off a cliff in a car that exploded upon impact, having a collapsing building fall on him, being electrocuted and falling into a pool of flaming water, and falling thousands of feet off the sheer face of a mountain. His body was never found.
Murdoc always screams "MACGYVER!" at the moment of his "death", except in episode "Halloween Knights", where he and MacGyver act as allies. When Murdoc tried to retire following his repeated failures to deal with MacGyver, HIT refused to let him go, instead putting a hit out on him and eventually holding his sister hostage in an attempt to bring him in. To rescue her, Murdoc is forced to seek MacGyver's help. In this episode, it is revealed that he's terrified of snakes. One signature giveaway is his wearing a death's head ring.
He has over-the-top disguises and weapons complemented by a maniacal-smile persona that offer a touch of comic relief to the series. He gets childlike joy from taunting his victims before he kills them using elaborate traps (which MacGyver can just manage to escape).
For the 2016 Reboot, Murdoc appears in the episode Corkscrew, where he is played by David Dastmalchian.