RIP ROBERT MORSE

1931-2022

Robert Alan Morse was born in Newton, Mass.  He was probably best known as the star of

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,

both the 1961 original Broadway production, for which he won a Tony Award, and the 1967 film adaptation. 

That same year (1967) Morse appeared with Walter Matthau, Lucille Ball, and a host of other comedy icons in a film titled A Guide for the Married Man. 

Ball and Morse did not share any scenes together.  

That finally changed when Lucy and Morse both did a week on the TV game show “Body Language” in 1984.  Morse played primarily with exercise guru Richard Simmons, while Ball was partnered with Isabel Sanford from “The Jeffersons.”  The game was essentially an update of “You Don’t Say” – televised charades; something Lucille Ball loved and was extremely adept at.  

He won a second Tony Award for playing Truman Capote in the 1989 production of the one-man play Tru. In 1992, he reprised the role on TV’s “American Playhouse”, winning a Primetime Emmy Award.

He made his Broadway debut in 1955, as Barnaby Tucker in the play The Matchmaker, the play that later inspired the musical Hello, Dolly!  He also did the role on film in 1958. Morse created the role of The Wizard in the San Francisco tryout of Wicked, but did not want to relocate to New York for the Broadway run, so his role went to Joel Gray. 

Late in his career, he experienced a resurgence of popularity as Bertram Cooper in the critically acclaimed series “Mad Men” (2007–2015).  His final Broadway appearance was in The Front Page in 2017. 

Morse was married twice and had five children. He died at his home in Los Angeles on April 20, 2022, at the age of 90.