LONDON (AP) — Actor Barry Morse, who played a detective pursuing the wrongly accused Dr. Richard Kimble in 1960s TV series The Fugitive, has died, his son said Tuesday. He was 89.
Hayward Morse said his father died Saturday at University College Hospital in London after a brief illness.
Born in London in 1918, Morse trained at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and appeared in British repertory and West End theaters before emigrating in 1951 to Canada, where he became a regular on radio and television.
The actor's website estimated he played more than 3,000 roles on radio, TV, stage and screen over a seven-decade career.
In 1963, he was hired by producer Quinn Martin to play Lt. Philip Gerard on The Fugitive. The series ran for 120 episodes over four seasons, teasing audiences with the cat-and-mouse pursuit of Kimble, wrongly accused of murdering his wife, by the implacable Gerard.
"He thought it was a good show — well filmed, well directed and well acted," Hayward Morse said. "He had nothing disparaging to say about The Fugitive. "
Morse also played Professor Victor Bergman in 1970s science fiction series Space 1999.
In 1966, he was named artistic director of the Shaw theater festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, rescuing it from financial crisis.
Morse was a lifelong devotee of playwright George Bernard Shaw, and his son said reviving the festival, which produces the works of Shaw and his contemporaries, was his proudest achievement.
Morse is survived by his son and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
His family planned a private cremation.
5 comments:
I'm too shocked and sad to say anything. Bleak news indeed.
What do they mean "also" in Space: 1999? That's obviously the most important thing he did! :)
89! What a soldier!
I had no idea he played the Tommy Lee Jones antecedant in the original Fugitive.
You can't help but notice the juxtaposition of these sentences:
"'He had nothing disparaging to say about The Fugitive.'
Morse also played Professor Victor Bergman in 1970s science fiction series Space 1999."
Kaboing! That's basically British for "fuck you."
Jordan and I had a great time grooving on Professor Victor Bergman as he wandered around Moonbase Alpha, nudging the plot along. Whether dazzled by the universe in a childlike zen trance or soberly contemplating everyone's impending doom, Victor Bergman was a class act. Good scientist? Hard to say.
I added ("he was also in Space 1999")to the original title The "Fugitive' star Barry Morse dies" from the A.P. Oddly enough, I've never seen either show, not due to a lack of interest, but because I've never been aware of them being on television in syndication. No excuse in the era of DVDs and Netflix.
I could never figure out whether he was the best actor on the show or the worst. He's just on a different groove than the rest of the cast; he's performing in a sophisticated, quasi-theatrical way that only looks weird because nobody else on the show is doing it. He comes out with these crazy line readings.
Damn. Barry Morse died. I'm sad.
Bergman was a "good scientist" to the extent that there was any "science" involved. WIthin the fictional universe of the story, he provided the correct answer often enough. I guess you have to go by that (rather than gauging the quality of the gibberish the writers had him saying all the time).
Whenever Bergman had the "wrong answer" (which was often) it was a device to allow Martin Landau to suddenly seize upon the correct one. (Kirk did this to Spock a lot: Spock would figure everything out and then Kirk would have an insight that proved him wrong.)
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