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Everything to Know About Dr. Muriel Landon, Donna Murphy's Brilliant Minds Mom & Boss
In flashbacks and the here-and-now, she’s a lifeline for Zachary Quinto’s offbeat Dr. Oliver Wolf.
Brilliant Minds is bringing something new and fresh this fall to medical dramas on NBC. Starring Zachary Quinto (Heroes, American Horror Story, the Star Trek film franchise) in a fictional physician’s role that's loosely based on the real-life story of innovative neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, it’s equal parts poignant and funny.
Quinto’s gift for playing an almost-rogue medical misfit breathes a fresh sort of life into each week’s fascinating case on Brilliant Minds. As new Bronx General Hospital neuro specialist Oliver Wolf, he’s admired but shunned by traditional hospitals, who tend to balk at his offbeat methods. Wary of technology and all things conventional, Dr. Wolf is, well, an actual lone wolf: He like to get to know his patients outside the hospital’s stuffy confines, and leans heavily into methods that make most medical CEOs think — gasp! — of scary lawsuits.
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In an inspired series of running flashbacks, the show explains just how Quinto’s character got to be so quirky. There’s a bittersweet mood that hangs over every childhood scene he remembers with his mom, Muriel Landon, who does her best to guide the future Dr. Wolf as he struggles to understand why his loving (but deeply troubled) father can’t be a part of their lives. But Muriel’s role remains just as vital in Dr. Wolf’s present as it does in his past — especially since those childhood flashbacks serve as insights into how he can help his patients… right here and right now.
What to know about Muriel Landon on NBC’s Brilliant Minds
Even in Brilliant Minds' very first episode, you can sense that Muriel’s never been your typical working mom. She’s revealed to be a doctor of some kind, but not the kind who can help young Oliver’s disturbed dad — a man who dispenses loving life advice before showing signs of struggling with serious mental issues of his own. She’s definitely the figure whom the flashback version of Oliver needs, though, wisely talking to him like the smart kid he is rather than sweeping the family’s troubles under a pleasant rug of parental repression.
If that sounds like a lot of family drama to take in, Brilliant Minds saves Muriel’s biggest surprise for the stunning closing moments of its series premiere. She’s not just a guiding figure from Oliver’s childhood memories, it turns out: She’s also revealed as the chief medical officer of the Bronx General Hospital where her now-adult son has just landed his newest neurologist’s gig.
RELATED: How Brilliant Minds Is Taking Inspiration from This Is Us and Will & Grace Over ER
“‘Ah, our new attending — Thanks for finally squeezing me in, ‘doctor!’” Muriel affectionately teases when her reluctant son at last shambles into her office. It’s a moment that explains the lingering mystery behind Dr. Wolf’s strange hesitation to take the job in the first place — but it’s also a big series twist to see such an influential force from his past leap suddenly into the present.
All about Muriel Landon actress Donna Murphy's TV shows, movies, and stage work
A longtime icon of the musical theatre stage, actor Donna Murphy plays Muriel Landon on Brilliant Minds.
Murphy is a five-time Tony Award nominee and two-time winner for her work as Fosca in Passion (1994–1995) and as Anna Leonowens in The King and I (1996–1997). She first made her Broadway debut in 1979 and has an awe-inspiring list of other stage credits under her belt, including Song of Singapore (1991), Hello Again (1993), Wonderful Town (2003), LoveMusik (2007), and much more. She was also alternate to Bette Midler as the title character in a Broadway revival of Hello, Dolly! (2017–2018).
TV fans know Murphy from her current role as Mrs. Astor in HBO’s The Gilded Age, as well as a long list of small-screen appearances on Mercy Street, Gossip Girl, Power, Resurrection, Hindsight, Made in Jersey, Trust Me, Hack, What About Joan, and Murder One. Her 1996 performance in the small-screen feature Someone Had to Be Benny also earned Murphy an Emmy award.
She’s also familiar to film fans, too, with credits that include The Nanny Diaries, Star Trek: Insurrection, The Bourne Legacy, Spider-Man 2, and Tangled as the evil Mother Gothel.
There’s a telltale flashback scene in Brilliant Minds’ debut episode; one in which Murphy’s character gets an earful from her precocious son: “You don’t understand [dad]! You don’t even try!” the young Oliver Wolf yells, confused at why his father keeps hurting himself — and why his mother can’t find a way to fix their hurting family. "If I were a doctor," he pleads, "I would do something!”
Now that they’re colleagues at Bronx General, can Dr. Wolf and his doctor-mom Muriel Landon find a new way forward as a family?
New episodes of Brilliant Minds premiere on Mondays on NBC at 10/9c and are available to stream on Peacock.
