Timothy Patrick Murphy, (November 3, 1959 - December 6, 1988) born in Hartford, Connecticut, was an American actor, perhaps best known for his role as "Mickey Trotter" on the popular CBS prime time soap opera Dallas during the 1982–83 season.
Murphy started his acting career as an adolescent in several television commercials and from there he went on to act in the 1978 mini-series Centennial. Other than his role in Dallas, he spent more than a year playing a young conman on the CBS daytime soap drama Search for Tomorrow, and also had a regular role on the short-lived 1984 ABC prime-time drama Glitter. In addition to this, he appeared in episodes of Hotel, The Love Boat and Hunter.
He appeared in the 1981 film Bushido Blade. One of Murphy's most substantial roles was in the 1984 feature film Sam's Son, the film biography of the life of actor Michael Landon, in which he played the character of Gene Orowitz (the young Landon).
Murphy later contracted HIV and died of AIDS on December 6, 1988 in Sherman Oaks, California. He once stated that he'd had an affair with the allegedly bisexual actor Brad Davis, who had AIDS and committed assisted suicide in 1991.[1]
His younger brother, Patrick Sean Murphy, was killed in the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001.