Actor Robert Morse, who won a Tony Award as a hilariously brash corporate climber in and a second one a generation later as the brilliant, troubled Truman Capote in , has died. He was 90.
Morse died at his home Wednesday after a brief illness, said David Shaul of BRS/Gage Talent Agency.
The boyishly handsome Morse first made his name on Broadway in the 1950s, and landed some roles in Hollywood comedies in the 1960s. "I consider myself an actor — shyly," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1964. "I love acting. It's a great use of body and mind… With all humility, you hope that you are doing something worthwhile."
More recently, he played the autocratic and eccentric leader of an advertising agency in , AMC's hit drama that debuted in 2007. The role earned him an Emmy nomination in 2008 as best guest actor in a drama series.
Morse was already well-established on Broadway, with two Tony nominations to his credit, when he became nationally famous at age 30 as the star of Abe Burrows and Frank Loesser's smash 1961 Broadway satire of corporate life, "How to Succeed…". The show won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony for best musical and ran for more than three years.
Morse's bright-eyed J. Pierrepont Finch was a master of corporate backstabbing — with a toothy grin — as he went from Manhattan window washer to titan at the World Wide Wicket company with the help of a little "how-to" paperback on office politics.
The musical's song titles suggest the button-down, pre-feminist business world: , a theme song for yes-men; , a song that winks at office dalliance; , a tribute to caffeine; and the hymn Finch sings to himself: . Finch toadies up to the aging boss, played by 1920s crooner Rudy Vallee, by joining in the old man's college fight song, .
"Imagine a collaboration between Horatio Alger and Machiavelli and you have Finch, the intrepid hero of this sortie into the canyons of commerce," The New York Times wrote. "As played with unfaltering bravura and wit by Robert Morse, he is a rumpled, dimpled angel with a streak of Lucifer."
Just about every person working at MM came down to watch him do this. We were all a mess. It was beautiful and strange, and so was he. <br><br>RIP Bobby. ❤️<a href=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/”https://t.co/kChQONXlu1″>https://t.co/kChQONXlu1
—@richsommer
The 1967 film version of dropped some songs but otherwise kept close to the stage original. Morse was back, as was Vallee.
But Morse's film career largely failed to take off.
He was back on Broadway in 1972 — and picked up another Tony nomination — for , producer David Merrick's musical version of . Morse starred as Jerry, the part played by Jack Lemmon in the Billy Wilder comedy about two male musicians who disguise themselves as women to get away from murderous gangsters.
, a one-man show based on Capote's writings, revived Morse's stage career in 1989.
In 1993, the televised version of on PBS won Morse an Emmy for best actor in a miniseries or special.
Television's returned Morse to the milieu of Manhattan office politics, 1960s-style.
Career ups and downs
Morse was born May 18, 1931, in Newton, Mass., and made his Broadway debut in 1955 in .
He received back-to-back Tony nominations for his next two roles: in 1959 for best featured actor in a play for , and in 1960 for best actor in a musical for , which also starred Jackie Gleason.
Among his films was , a 1965 black comedy about an Englishman's encounter with Hollywood and the funeral industry, based on the satirical novel by Evelyn Waugh.
Reviewing his career, Morse told The New York Times in 1989: "Things change. I never got a chance to be in a play or picture where I played a father, or had a family, or whexjmtzywre I could feel or show something. The wild child in me never had a chance to grow up."
He said he had successfully battled alcohol and drug abuse, but added, "I don't think drinking got in the way of my work. I did my job. It was the other 22 hours I had a problem with."
I was performing on Bway in a cast of 60 when Robert Morse was doing the solo show, Tru. He often came to our theater cause he wanted to be with people. He loved people and people loved him. His work was infused with joy and it was joyous to be with him. <a href=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/”https://twitter.com/hashtag/riprobertmorse?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#riprobertmorse
—@IJasonAlexander
Still, he said of his career, "I didn't think it was going to end or not end. I just plowed on. One day you hear `We love you, Bobby.' The next day you're doing voiceovers."
He is survived by five children, a son Charlie and four daughter, Robin, Andrea, Hilary and Allyn.
