Nearly a half-century after his broadcast career was at its peak, the late CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow continues to have an influence in the journalism world.

For veteran character actor David Strathairn, who portrays Murrow in the new film Good Night, and Good Luck, which deals with his on-air confrontations with Sen. Joseph McCarth­y during the 1950s, playing a real-life icon was both intimidating and exhilarating.

“It was scary, and then it became very moving,” Strathairn said during a recent promotional stop in Dallas. “I learned a lot more about him that was brought out in the film. It was a huge responsibility.”

The black-and-white film presents an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the CBS newsroom during McCarthy’s famed anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1950s, when many journalists wouldn’t challenge McCarthy’s assertions for fear of being “blacklisted” themselves.

Murrow, however, gains the reluctant support of the network to research McCarthy’s findings and aggressively challenge them, first through investigative reports and eventually to the senator directly through interviews. The programs lead to McCarthy’s censure, and today are viewed as pioneering investigative pieces.

To prepare for the part, Strathairn said he watched hours of archival footage, including episodes of Murrow’s famed See It Now and Person to Person broadcasts. He also researched Murrow’s writing in an attempt to capture his essence.

“We weren’t making a bio-picture, and we didn’t want an impersonation,” Strathairn said. “I tried to at least affect a sense of him. A way to do that was to get the voice, at least the cadence and the pace of his phrasing, and his articulation. You sort of guess, based on fact, how he would have reacted at any given moment.”

Strathairn, 56, accepted the role at the request of director George Clooney, who plays a supporting role as Murrow’s producer, Fred Friendly. Clooney grew up in a newsroom himself, as the son of a journalist, and made the decision to shoot in black-and-white reflective of the period, as well as to incorporate actual news footage with his own.

One of the challenges for Strathairn was conveying the emotions of Murrow, a taciturn man who often internalized his biases and distanced himself from friends and colleagues, which symbolized the newsroom dynamics of the era.

“He was very poised. Inside, he was churning. I think if you opened up the top of his head and looked in there, you’d see this cauldron going on,” he said. “People related differently to each other back then. You were together, but you were alone at the same time. There weren’t going to be any high-fives or hugging on the set. You were demonstrable in a different way.”

Several of the actors were able to meet either the people they played in the film or, in Strathairn’s case, family members. While that added pressure to the performance, Strathairn said their support also became a source of comfort.

Strathairn said he used the role as an opportunity to personally learn more about a subject he was only marginally familiar with during his childhood. He said the story also has contemporary relevance.

“I learned so much about the time. I knew of McCarthyism and Murrow, but I learned about this piece of history — not only the man, but I learned much about how it actually came down,” said Strathairn, whose performance earned an award at the recent Venice Film Festival.

Good Night, and Good Luck is now playing at a few regional theaters, with further expansion due in the coming weeks.