A real estate developer whose success fueled his noted art collection and philanthropy has died.

Murray Frum died of metastatic lung cancer. His son, political commentator David Frum, says his father never smoked.

Frum graduated from university as a dentist and married Barbara Rosberg, a history student who became famous as broadcaster Barbara Frum.

They collected their first piece of African art on their honeymoon. It was the first of what became an internationally recognized art collection.

The collection has been donated to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Barbara Frum died of leukemia in 1992.

Murray Frum also served as president of the Ontario Arts Council and the Stratford Festival. He was as a trustee of the Art Gallery of Ontario, a director of Mount Sinai Hospital, and a member of the Order of Canada

Murray Frum was 81.