Harry “Henry” Morgan has passed away at 96.
In a way, Morgan had two careers. To most of us who own televisions, he’s an icon, due to Dragnet and M*A*S*H. But before that, and this is where he plugs into this blog, he was a top notch character actor, with a list of credits any actor’d be jealous of. In 50s Westerns alone, he appears in some of the genre’s best: Bend Of The River (1952), High Noon (1952) and The Far Country (1954, pictured above) — along with a couple of smaller pictures that are personal favorites, The Showdown (1950) and Star In The Dust (1956). He’d already done The Ox-Bow Incident (1943, below) and Yellow Sky (1948). And he’d add Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) and The Shootist (1976) to his credits before he was finished.
An incredible body of work. And remember, that’s just the Westerns.
Morgan is one of those actors that though I know who he is and am always excited when he turns up in something, I quickly forget I’m watching a performance — he’s always real. I’m no actor, but I imagine pulling that off in a character part’s shorter screen time is a real accomplishment.
A beautiful tribute. You’re so right — he really accomplished something, making his characters very real in a short time frame.
Best wishes,
Laura
Thanks for the complement. It was hard to type up anything that really did him justice.
As I looked at his list of credits and thought about all those pictures, I realized how under-appreciated he is.
He was a terrific heavy, that’s who I remember him as, but really he’s one of those guys you could throw at anything,
A very fitting tribute Toby.
Morgan was a great all-round performer who seemed to slot effortlessly into whatever role or movie came his way. Outside of his fine western parts I thought his work on Moonrise and The Big Clock was especially memorable.
RIP Harry.
One memorable Western appearance by Morgan was an episode of GUNSMOKE entitled “Milligan”. Morgan played the titular character, a milquetoast who is clearly out of his depth when called on to be part of a posse, and ends up accidentally shooting the outlaw in the back. He is then shunned by the city and his children are jeered at school. Really convincing in the role, especially impressive considering his earlier work as a heavy. One of the color episodes.
Also saw recently a Film Noir movie where Morgan plays sort of a weasel informer and back-stabber. This one from the early ’50′s, wish I could remember the name.