Barry Morse
Herbert Morse (10 June 1918 – 2 February 2008), known professionally as Barry Morse, was a British-Canadian actor of stage, screen, and radio, best known for his roles in the television series The Fugitive and the British sci-fi drama Space: 1999. His performing career spanned seven decades and he had thousands of roles to his credit, including work for the BBC and the CBC.
Barry Morse
Beginnings[edit]
Herbert Morse (he later changed his personal name to Barry) was born on 10 June 1918, in the Hammersmith area of west London (Morse later claimed to have been born in Shoreditch in London's East End but publicly-accessible birth records confirm Hammersmith), a son of Charles Hayward Morse and Mary Florence Hollis Morse. His parents owned a tobacco shop.[1][2] Morse was a 15-year-old errand boy when he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He performed the role of the Lion in Androcles and the Lion, and as a result, came to know George Bernard Shaw, a patron of the academy. His first paid job as an actor while still a student was in If I Were King. At graduation, he featured in the title role of William Shakespeare's play Henry V, presented as a Royal Command Performance for King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
Career[edit]
Radio[edit]
Upon graduation, Morse won the BBC's Radio Prize which resulted in several parts and a main role in the drama The Fall of the City. Later, among dozens of other roles, he played the lead in Shakespeare's Hamlet and featured as Paul Temple for the radio series Send for Paul Temple Again. He later performed on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio beginning in 1951 and continuing to the 1980s, including the long-running series A Touch of Greasepaint, the Joe McCarthy–inspired The Investigator, and 1984. He also featured in a number of U.S. productions during the 1970s and 1980s for producer Yuri Rasovsky, including The Odyssey of Homer, which won a Peabody Award.
Morse's final radio performance, Rogues and Vagabonds – A Theatrical Scrapbook, was distributed by internet radio KSAV on 7 August and 9 August 2007, prior to being released on compact disc format. The hour-long special audio drama comprised a half-dozen vignettes and performances culled from theatrical history, including Shakespeare and Shaw.
British stage[edit]
Morse was a member of repertory theatre companies in Peterborough, Nottingham, and other cities, where he gained experience as an actor while playing more than 200 roles. In 1941, he joined the national tour of The First Mrs. Fraser featuring Dame Marie Tempest and A.E. Matthews. He debuted on the London West End stage in The School for Slavery. Other West End productions included Escort, The Assassin, and A Bullet in the Ballet. He was directed by John Gielgud in Crisis in Heaven. Morse developed a theatrical partnership with actress Nova Pilbeam, and they worked together both in movies and on stage, most notably in the successful stage productions of The Voice of the Turtle and Flowers for the Living.
Movies[edit]
Morse made his movie debut in the 1942 comedy The Goose Steps Out featuring Will Hay and continued with roles in Thunder Rock, When We Are Married, and This Man Is Mine (released as A Soldier for Christmas in North America) with Glynis Johns and Nova Pilbeam. Other notable movies include Kings of the Sun with Yul Brynner, Justine, and Puzzle of a Downfall Child with Faye Dunaway. He also appeared in the thrillers Asylum (1972) with Peter Cushing, Funeral Home with Kay Hawtrey and Lesleh Donaldson (1980), and The Changeling with George C. Scott (1980). He worked on several Lacewood animated productions, notably as the voice of Dragon in The Railway Dragon, alongside Tracey Moore, who played Emily. In 1999, he featured in the dramatic comedy Taxman with Billy Zane, released as Promise Her Anything and on DVD as Nothing to Declare. His final movie appearance was in I Really Hate My Job, released in 2007. Morse was offered a cameo in the 1993 film version of The Fugitive, but declined.
Later stage work[edit]
Morse performed on Broadway in Hide and Seek, Salad Days, and the lead of Frederick Rolfe in Hadrian the Seventh, which he also played in Australia, co-featuring with Frank Thring. He directed the Broadway debut of Staircase featuring Eli Wallach and Milo O'Shea, a depiction of gay male life.[3] He also featured in the U.S. national tour of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker as Davies.
He first presented a version of his one-man show Merely Players in 1959, which explored the experiences of actors through history, with the definitive version of the show debuting in 1984 for a Canadian national tour.
Morse served as artistic director of the Shaw Festival of Canada for the 1966 season and as an adjunct professor at Yale Drama School in 1968.
In 1995, he premiered the Elizabeth Sharland play The Private Life of George Bernard Shaw in Toronto, also featuring Shirley Knight. The play featured Morse in the role of Shaw, with 10 actresses portraying the various women in Shaw's life. Morse later performed the play in 1997 at the British Theatre Museum in London.
With his son Hayward Morse, he featured in the 2004 North American debut of Bernard and Bosie: A Most Unlikely Friendship by Anthony Wynn, performed at the University of Florida, Sarasota. This two-act stage drama is based on the correspondence between playwright George Bernard Shaw, played by Morse, and Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas (Oscar Wilde's boyfriend), played by Hayward.
The next year, Morse appeared in the world premiere performance of the science-fiction play Contact by Doug Grissom, co-featuring Ryan Case and presented in Tampa, Florida.
Television[edit]
1975-77 Space: 1999 (Dr. Victor Bergman)
Personal life[edit]
Family life[edit]
After a short courtship, Morse married actress Sydney Sturgess on 26 March 1939, during their work together in repertory theatre in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. The couple had two children, Melanie Morse (1945–2005) and Hayward Morse (b. 1947).
In 1951, the Morse family relocated to Canada, where he worked in radio and theatre, and participated with the first television broadcasts of CBC Television from Montreal, and later Toronto. Morse became a Canadian citizen in 1953.
Charitable work[edit]
Barry Morse long patronized a number of charitable organisations, 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 cause of Parkinson's disease was special for Morse, as his wife of more than 60 years, actress Sydney Sturgess, battled the illness for 14 years before her death in 1999. In later years, he also became an advocate for senior citizens in his adopted homeland of Canada.
Death[edit]
Barry Morse died on 2 February 2008 at University College Hospital, London, aged 89, after a brief illness.[4] His body was donated to science, and on 3 April 2011 Morse's ashes were scattered in St. James's Square Garden, Pall Mall, London, England.