Robert Morse, the Broadway star who rose to fame starring in How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and later found a new audience as one of the stars of the acclaimed TV series Mad Men, has died at 90.
The news was first shared on Twitter by Morse’s friend, writer-producer Larry Karaszewski, who called the actor a “huge talent and a beautiful spirit.”
Jordan Bell of the talent agency BRS/Gage confirmed the news to Variety, saying Morse “died peacefully at home after a brief illness.”
The actor, recognizable for his short stature and gap-tooth grin, was a man of many talents. He was a song-and-dance man as well as a skilled dramatic actor, and his lauded Broadway career led to success on screen.
He made his Broadway debut in 1955 in Thorton Wilder’s The Matchmaker, and reprised the role in a film version. He then earned his first Tony nomination for the play Say, Darling, and the musical Take Me Along.
But it was his starring role in the hit 1961 musical comedy How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying that made him a star. Morse played J. Pierrepont Finch, the lead character who rises from a window washer to chairman of the board.
Morse won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. The show won many awards including the Tony for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and has become a Broadway classic.
The musical was adapted into a film in 1967, with Morse reprising his role, and received further acclaim.
“The pixie-like Morse is excellent, with both voice and facial expressions right on target all the time,” read the original review from Variety.
Morse also acted in other films in the ’60s including The Loved One, A Guide for the Married Man opposite Walter Matthau and Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? opposite Doris Day. On Broadway, he received another Tony nomination for the musical Sugar, an adaptation of the film Some Like it Hot.
While he had success in comedy, Morse began to feel he was being typecast in the industry.
“I’m the short, funny guy,” he told the New York Times in 1972. “It’s very difficult to get out of that.”
But he found critical success in the the 1989 one-man play Tru, in which he played Truman Capote. He won a Tony Award, as well as an Emmy Award reprising the performance on American Playhouse.
It would be a while before Morse would return to the Broadway stage. He originated the role of the Wizard in Wicked, but left the show before it debuted on Broadway and was replaced by Joel Grey.
But Morse found another major success on TV, playing Bertram Cooper on the acclaimed AMC series Mad Men.
Cooper was one of the founders of the Sterling Cooper ad agency where the show is set, and was a boss of series protagonist Don Draper. The character was an eccentric, elderly partner who could occasionally be ruthless in business.
Mad Men was a critically acclaimed success, winning many Emmy Awards and is regarded as one of the best shows of all time. It introduced Morse to a younger audience, and earned him five Emmy nominations.
The ’60s-set drama was also a fitting bookend to his initial success in How to Succeed, and Morse told the Times that being on set “looked like the road company” of the musical.
And Morse’s final scene on the series paid tribute to his Broadway roots. In the series, Cooper dies on the night of the 1969 moon landing, and Don Draper later has a vision of his former boss dancing to “The Best Things in Life are Free.”
“What a send-off!” Morse told the Times. “The opportunity to shine in the spotlight that [Mad Men creator] Matt Weiner gave me — it was an absolute love letter. Christmas and New Year’s, all rolled into one.”
Mad Men gave Morse another defining role, but and led to a few other late-in-life projects.
He was part of the cast of American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, and returned to Broadway in the 2016 revival of The Front Page, at age 85.
Morse died at his home in Los Angeles, just a month before he would’ve turned 91.
After news of his passing broke, many in the industry paid tribute to the actor, including many of his Mad Men co-stars.
Rest in peace, Robert Morse. From How to Succeed to Mad Men, you kept us all entertained for decades.
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