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The theater at the Bullis School in Potomac was filled Saturday as a crowd gathered to remember Patrick McMurphy, a 2002 graduate of Winston Churchill High School who died Aug. 30 at his Brooklyn apartment.

McMurphy died of severe head injuries he sustained in an accidental fall Aug. 28 from the roof of his apartment, according to a memorial Facebook page set up by McMurphy's family. He was home alone. Responders found McMurphy in a coma, and he died about a day later. He was 23.

"He was an unbelievably caring person and an unbelievable friend," said Jason Brand, who met McMurphy in sixth grade when the two attended Herbert Hoover Middle School together. Brand spoke at the memorial service Saturday.

McMurphy had been interested in theater from a young age, Brand said, and played a lead role in a musical that year as a sixth-grader though it was unprecedented at the time.

McMurphy had moved to New York to pursue his dream of becoming an actor.

"He realized that this was what he wanted to do," McMurphy said. "He was always a performer."

Friends have expressed shock over McMurphy's death. Zach Gallant, who lived across the street from McMurphy as a child and described him as his best friend, said he had been headed to Croatia on a Fulbright scholarship when he got the news of the accident.

"I was going to hang out with him in his New York apartment before I went on the Fulbright,"Gallant said. "…I still regret not having done that."

McMurphy was born Nov. 7, 1984 at the Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring. He was the son of Michael A. and Maureen Daly McMurphy.

McMurphy attended Dickinson College, where he was co-captain of the track team his junior year. He held three school track records. He also attended the Stella Adler Institute at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and performed lead roles in many Washington-area professional and community theaters.

Winston Churchill alumni comprised a large portion of attendees at the memorial service, according to Jessica Speck, who taught McMurphy in a television production class at Churchill. McMurphy was also in a student-directed play Speck sponsored.

She described him as energetic, full of life, and goofy. "He had a lot of presence, both on and off stage," she said.

Brand recalled that McMurphy was always the life of the party. "He was the guy you wanted at your party, because he would bring another 50 people and 50 more people would come because Patrick was there," he said. Andrew Yeats, a friend who attended Churchill with McMurphy and also lived down the street from him, agreed that his friend was always the center of attention. "People either loved him or hated him, because he was so outgoing and in your face,"Yeats said.

Survivors in addition to his parents include two brothers, Matthew McMurphy of Dallas, Texas and Kevin McMurphy of Washington. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Patrick Michael McMurphy Memorial Foundation, P.O. Box 60806, Potomac, MD 20859. The foundation will promote the arts, especially theater, film, and music.

Pumphrey's Funeral Home in Bethesda handled local arrangements.

Speck said that she had taught a lot of students over the course of her 11-year teaching career, but McMurphy stood out. "Patrick was incredibly memorable," Speck said. "You could not forget Patrick and I certainly won't going forward."