Research Guru / Moderator
Posted:
Feb 3, 2008, 6:34 PM
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British-Canadian actor Barry Morse dead at 89
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Barry Morse, once described by the Toronto Star as "one of Canada and Britain's most versatile and compelling actors," died Saturday at 89, according to the actor's Web site.
The place and cause of death was not immediately announced.
Born Herbert Morse in London's East End on June 10, 1918, he was probably best known to North Americans as Lt. Gerard, the ever-vigilant pursuer of wrongly accused Dr. Richard Kimball (David Janssen) in The Fugitive, and Prof. Victor Bergman in Space: 1999 with Barbara Bain and Martin Landau. His role in The Fugitive won him the jocular nickname "The most hated man in America."
He had the title role in The Railway Dragon (1991) and The Birthday Dragon (1992), two half-hour cartoon specials from Lacewood Productions. The first was nominated for a Gemini Award for best animated program or series; the second was nominated for a CableACE for animated programming special or series.
Morse played over 3,000 roles on the stage, screen and radio in a career spanning over six decades, according to one journalist's estimate.
One memorable guest appearance was in The Outer Limits episode "Controlled Experiment," when he starred with Carroll O'Connor and Grace Lee Whitney. This episode was shot as a pilot for a proposed series starring O'Connor and Morse as two Martians sent to Earth to examine human life and experiences. CBS opted for My Favorite Martian instead.
The 5'10" actor was sometimes called the "CBC Test Pattern" due to his frequency on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation programming. A five-time winner of Canada's Best Television Actor award, he was the former artistic director of the Shaw Festival of Canada.
Born in London, England to a cockney family, Morse was a 15-year-old school dropout and errand boy when he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Famed actress Dame Sybil Thorndike was one of several notables who reviewed his audition and later told Morse that they had found his presentation to be "curiously touching." At this time, he was the youngest student ever to enter RADA.
He wrapped up his work in RADA by starring in the title role of King Henry V, a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, patrons of the Academy, and also won their coveted radio-acting award.
Morse followed with runs in London's West End and in theatrical productions throughout the United Kingdom, as well as appearing on the BBC’s earliest live television broadcasts, beginning in 1937. He made his West End debut in a play called School for Slavery, and with Crisis in Heaven, directed by John Gielgud. He continued working in many plays, on the West End and throughout England, including The Assassin by Irwin Shaw, in which he created the leading role and received great critical acclaim. He started his movie career playing stooge to the wry and dyspeptic comedian Will Hay in The Goose Steps Out.
He married fellow actress Sydney Sturgess on March 26, 1939 after a two-month courtship following their introduction while working together in a repertory theatre company in Peterborough, England. Two children followed: daughter Melanie in 1945 and son Hayward in 1947. Morse and his wife relocated the family to Canada in 1951, working in live theatre and on CBC Radio, as well as acting in the premiere television broadcasts of CBC Television from Montreal.
When the fledgling Canadian television service started regular broadcasting from their new radio and TV headquarters in Toronto, the family settled there. Morse devoted time to performing and producing the landmark half-hour CBC Radio series A Touch of Greasepaint and later, Barry Morse Presents on television, among others. Greasepaint, which ran for 14 years, explored the experience of actors through the ages and served as a rough draft for his touring one-man show, Merely Players.
His theatrical background included work in the United States, Canada, Australia and Britain. He performed on Broadway in Hide and Seek, Salad Days, and the lead of Frederick William Rolfe in Hadrian VII for six months. He directed the historic Broadway debut of Staircase starring Eli Wallach and Milo O’Shea, which stands as Broadway’s first depiction of homosexual men in a serious way. Starting in 1984, he traveled the English-speaking world performing his one-man show Merely Players, vignettes of actors from Elizabethan times to the present. His most recent stage performance was in Bernard and Bosie: A Most Unlikely Friendship in 2004. Other productions include Sleuth, Man and Superman, The Caretaker and The Voice of the Turtle. He performed every play of William Shakespeare and all of the plays of George Bernard Shaw.
Other series starring roles included The Adventurer and The Zoo Gang. He also appeared in some of the most popular mini-series, including The Golden Bowl, The Martian Chronicles, Whoops Apocalypse, Sadat, A Woman of Substance, The Winds of War, Master of the Game, War and Remembrance, Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story and Waking the Dead. His most recent project was the TV mini-series Icon, starring Patrick Swayze, based on the best-selling book by Frederick Forsyth.
He long supported a number of charitable organizations, including the Toronto-based Performing Arts Lodges of Canada, the Royal Theatrical Fund, the London Shakespeare Workout Prison Project, Actors' Fund of Canada, The Samaritans, BookPALS, and Parkinson's disease treatment and research. The Parkinson's cause holds a special place in Morse's heart, as his wife of more than 60 years, Sydney, was diagnosed and ultimately succumbed to the illness in 1999 after a 14- year battle with the disease. For the past two decades, he worked tirelessly in the United States, Canada and Britain to raise both funds and awareness of the disease.
"In a lifetime of pulling faces and making noises for a living, I've come to believe that despite all the clichés and the fallacies written and spoken about our trade, there really is no business like show business," Morse once said.
He was the president of The Shaw Society of England, founded in 1941 to promote interest in the life and works of George Bernard Shaw.
Barry Morse and his wife had three children: Hayward Morse, Melanie Morse MacQuarrie -- both actors -- and Barry Richard Charles Morse. Melanie Morse MacQuarrie died in 2005.
(This post was edited by eminovitz on Feb 3, 2008, 6:35 PM)
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Directing Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Feb 4, 2008, 9:28 AM
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Re: British-Canadian actor Barry Morse dead at 89
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Lt. Gerard was inspired by Javert the relentless pursuer of Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables". Of course, Tommy Lee Jones won an Oscar for playing US Marshal Sam Gerard in the film version of "The Fugitive".
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Research Guru / Moderator
Posted:
Feb 4, 2008, 1:37 PM
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Re: British-Canadian actor Barry Morse dead at 89
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Mom remembers Barry Morse for his work in Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio dramas, often co-starring with the great John Drainie (who died of cancer at 50 in 1966).
He performed on and produced the half-hour CBC Radio series A Touch of Greasepaint, which ran for 14 years.
Son Hayward Morse says that his father died Saturday at University College hospital in London, where he had been living for a number of years. He says he was taken there Wednesday after he began experiencing blackouts and was falling down.
(This post was edited by eminovitz on Feb 4, 2008, 1:40 PM)
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Directing Animator / Contributor
Posted:
Feb 4, 2008, 2:01 PM
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Re: British-Canadian actor Barry Morse dead at 89
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In the final episode of "The Fugitive", then one of the most watched tv programs in the US for a period, Lt. Gerard had caught Dr. Richard Kimble (David Janssen) but agreed to release Kimble so he could prove his innocence in the murder of his wife within a 24 hour period. Kimble tracked down the real killer Fred Johnson, the One-Armed Man (Bill Raisch) and were fighting each other on top of a water tower. Gerard on the ground saw the fighting and in following his instincts, shot the One-Armed Man before he could push Kimble off. Johnson then fell off the tower to his death.
The final scene had an exonerated Kimble exchanging respectful but not really friendly glances with Gerard and then walking off happily with a new girlfriend...not before hesitating a bit when a police car drives by. Narrator William Conrad then says in the final line of the show: "The day the running stopped".
(This post was edited by artytoons on Feb 4, 2008, 2:07 PM)
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