Mark should be the person writing this, but he’s neck-deep in work on the Dallas Comic Show. I’ve put off writing this piece for a few hours, but it needs to be posted.
Last night, following the Dallas Film Society Honors gala at the Highland Hotel, BigFanBoy.com film critic Gary Murray was struck by a hit-and-run driver at a busy intersection in Dallas, and died at the hospital four hours later. He was 54.
Gary was the sitting president of the North Texas Film Critics Association, and also wrote for Selig Film News, PopSyndicate, TheCityWeb, and Entertainment Showcase. Gary started writing in Dallas in 1989 for the North Dallas Movie Review.
When I re-entered the film press realm in 2009, Gary was one of the first people in the local critic sphere who befriended me. That was his way. He was an amazingly genial person, whose knowledge of music and film was encyclopedic.
In the previous week, he was covering the Dallas International Film Festival, working the red carpet interview circuit and reviewing the slate of films. It was his bailiwick, and even with recent health issues that he had soldiered through in the last couple of years, he relished the experience.
We mourn the loss of his voice, his laugh, and his passion.
There are plans in progress for a memorial event for Gary, and we’ll have the details soon.
Gary Murray with fellow critics Matt Mungle, Bill Graham, James Wallace and Devin Pike at the 2014 Dallas International Film Festival.
America's Sweetheart. Pixel monkey; media whore; recovering film critic; baseball fanatic; husband; Texan; human. 
RIP Henry VIII
This was his character at The Magic Time Machine Restaurant in Austin when my (now) wife and I waited tables with him while in college 30 years ago.
Even back then he had such a passion for film. Much love and warm memories Gary.