Chester Morris
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Chester Morris |
Bucks County Playhouse productions
A View From The Bridge - Eddie - 1957
A Frenzy of Peace and Quiet - Elihu Good - 1958
Time Out For Ginger - Howard Carroll - 1964
The Caine Mutiny Court Martial - Lt. Commander Philip Frances Queeg - 1970
Internet Broadway Database - Chester Morris
Internet Movie Database - Chester Morris
Chester Morris
(1901 - 1970)
CHESTER MORRIS was the son of actors William Morris and comedienne Etta Hawkins; Morris' siblings, Adrian and Wilhelmina, later became performers as well. Reportedly in silent films at the age of nine, Morris' certified Broadway debut, at 15, was in Lionel Barrymore's The Copperhead; that same year (1917), Morris graduated from the New York School of Fine Arts. He billed himself as "the youngest leading man in the country" -- which, at 17, he may very well have been. He was Oscar-nominated for his first talking-picture role in "Alibi" (1929). Morris spent the 1930s alternating between tough-guy stuff like "The Big House" (1930) and tux-and-tails assignments in films like "The Divorcee" (1930). From 1940 through 1949, Morris starred as Boston Blackie in a lively series of Columbia B-pictures, a role which gave him opportunities to indulge his fondness for elaborate makeups and sleight-of-hand. During the 1950s, Morris headlined the touring companies of several Broadway plays, including Detective Story and Advise and Consent; he also hosted the syndicated TV anthology "Captured". Chester Morris committed suicide while he was starring in a Bucks County Playhouse production of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial in 1970. His last film, "The Great White Hope", was released shortly after his death.