Thomas Francis Murphy was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1953. Early on in his adult life he made his living in dairy barns and on factory floors. He has trained as a hard hat diver, an ambulance driver, worked as a social worker, and freelance theatre critic. In his thirties, while living in Little Rock, AR, Murphy decided to take an acting class. The class changed his direction in life and acting suddenly filled the void. He spent over 20 years on the East Coast with a paintbrush in one hand and a script in the other while pursuing a career in the theatre. He trained with Shakespeare& Co of Lenox, MA and spent years performing in off off Broadway houses in New York where his work in the plays of Sam Shepard garnered high praise in the New York Times and several other publications.