Robert Morley Totally Explained

Everything about Robert Morley totally explained

Robert Morley CBE (May 26, 1908 – June 3, 1992) was an Oscar-nominated English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment. In Movie Encyclopedia, film critic Leonard Maltin describes Morley as "recognizable by his ungainly bulk, bushy eyebrows, thick lips, and double chin, […] particularly effective when cast as a pompous windbag". More politely, Ephraim Kurtz in his International Film Encyclopaedia describes Morley as a "a rotund, triple-chinned, delightful character player of the British and American stage and screen."

Life and work

He was born Robert Adolph Wilton Morley in Semley, Wiltshire, England. Morley attended Elizabeth College, Guernsey, RADA and made his West End stage debut in 1929 in Treasure Island at the Strand Theatre and his Broadway debut in 1938 in the title role of Oscar Wilde at the Fulton Theatre. Although soon won over to the big screen, Morley remained both a busy West End star and successful author, as well as tirelessly touring.
   A versatile actor, especially in his younger years, he played roles as divergent as those of Louis XVI, for which he received an Academy Award Nomination as Best Supporting Actor (Marie Antoinette 1938). He gave Oscar-worthy performances in Oscar Wilde (1960) and as a missionary in The African Queen (1951).
   As a playwright he co-wrote and adapted several plays for the stage, having outstanding success in London and New York with Edward, My Son, a gripping family drama written in 1947 (with Noel Langley) in which he played the central role of Arnold Holt. But the disappointing film version, directed by George Cukor at MGM Elstree in 1949, instead starred the miscast Spencer Tracy, who turned Holt, an unscrupulous English businessman, into a blustering Canadian expatriate.
   Morley also personified the conservative Englishman in many comedy and caper films. Later in his career, he received critical accolades for Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?. Renowned for repartee and for being an eloquent conversationalist, Morley gained the epitheton of being a "wit".
   Morley was honoured by being the first King of Moomba appointed by the Melbourne Moomba festival committee and, in typical humility, he accepted the crown in bare feet! Morley was in Australia touring his one-man show, The Sound of Morley.
   He married Joan Buckmaster (1910-2005), a daughter of Dame Gladys Cooper. Their elder son, Sheridan Morley was a well-known writer and critic. They also had a daughter Annabel and another son Wilton. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1957. He was also offered a Knighthood during the Wilson government but declined it. He died in Reading, Berkshire from a stroke, aged 84.

Theatre career

First stage appearance in Dr Syn (Hippodrome, Margate, 28 May, 1928)
First London role, a pirate in Treasure Island (Strand Theatre, Christmas 1929)
Touring, plus Playhouse Oxford and Festival Cambridge repertory, (1931-1933)
Oakes in Up In the Air (Royalty Theatre, London 1933)
Touring with Sir Frank Benson (1934-35)
Ran a repertory company with Peter Bull (Perranporth, Cornwall, 1935)
Title role in Oscar Wilde (Gate Theatre Studio, Villiers Street, London, 1936)
Alexandre Dumas in The Great Romancer (Strand Theatre and New Theatre, 1937)
Henry Higgins in Pygmalion (Old Vic Theatre, 1937)
Title role in Oscar Wilde (Fulton Theatre, New York, October 1938)
Title role in Springtime for Henry (Perranporth, 1939)
Descius Heiss in Play With Fire (try-out version of The Shop at Sly Corner, Theatre Royal Brighton, 1941)
Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner (Savoy Theatre — and on tour — 1941-1943)
Charles in Staff Dance (also wrote, touring UK, 1944)
Prince Regent in The First Gentleman (New Theatre and Savoy, 1945-46)
Arnold Holt in Edward, My Son (also co-wrote, His Majesty's Theatre, 1948; also played this role at the Martin Beck Theatre New York 1948, and in Australia and New Zealand, 1949-50)
Philip in The Little Hut (Lyric Theatre, 1950)
Hippo in Hippo Dancing (also adapted, Lyric, 1954)
Oswald Petersham in A Likely Tale (Globe Theatre, 1956)
Panisse in the musical Fanny (Drury Lane, 1956
The Tunnel of Love (directed, Her Majesty's, 1957)
Sebastian Le Boeuf in Hook, Line and Sinker (also adapted, Piccadilly Theatre, 1958)
Once More With Feeling (directed, New Theatre, 1959)
Mr Asano in A Majority of One (Phoenix Theatre, 1960)
Title role in Mr Rhodes (Theatre Royal Windsor, 1961)
The Bishop in A Time to Laugh (Piccadilly, 1962)
The Sound of Morley (One-man show, touring Australia 1966-67)
Sir Mallalieu Fitzbuttress in Halfway Up the Tree (Queen's Theatre, 1967)
Frank Foster in How the Other Half Loves (Lyric, 1970; also North America, 1972, and Australia, 1973)
Barnstable in A Ghost on Tiptoe (also co-wrote, Savoy, 1974)
Pound in Banana Ridge (Savoy, 1976)
Toured Robert Morley Talks to Everyone (1978)
Picture of Innocence (co-wrote and toured UK and Canada, 1978)
Hilary in Alan Bennett's The Old Country (Theatre Royal Sydney, 1980)

Select filmography

Marie Antoinette (1938) (King Louis XVI)

Major Barbara (1941) (Andrew Undershaft)

The Foreman Went to France (1942) (Mayor Coutare of Bivary)

The Young Mr. Pitt (1942) (Charles James Fox)

The African Queen (1951) (Reverend Samuel Sayer)

Outcast of the Islands (1952) (Almayer)

The Final Test (1953)

Beat the Devil (1953) (Peterson)

Beau Brummell (1954) (King George III)

The Doctor's Dilemma (1959) (Sir Ralph Bloomfield-Bonington)

The Battle of the Sexes (1959) (Robert MacPherson)

Oscar Wilde (1960) (Oscar Wilde)

The Old Dark House (1963) (Roderick Femm)

Murder at the Gallop (1963) (Hector Enderby) (opposite Margaret Rutherford)

Take Her, She's Mine (1963) (Mr. Pope-Jones)

Of Human Bondage (1964) (Dr. Jacobs)

Topkapi (1964) (Cedric Page)

Genghis Kahn (1965) (Emperor of China)

Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) (Lord Rawnsley)

The Loved One (film) (1965) (Sir Ambrose Ambercrombie)

A Study in Terror (1965) (Mycroft Holmes)

Life at the Top (1965) (Tiffield)

The Alphabet Murders (aka The ABC Murders) (1965) (Captain Arthur Hastings)

Way...Way Out (1966) (Harold Quonset)

Hot Millions (1968) (Caesar Smith)

Cromwell (1970) (The Earl of Manchester)

Theatre of Blood (1973) (Meredith Merridew)

Great Expectations (1974) (ITC TVM) (Uncle Pumblechook)

Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (aka Too Many Chefs) (1978) (Max)

The Human Factor (1980) (Dr Percival)

The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

The Old Men at the Zoo (1982) (BBC TV mini-series) (Lord Godmanchester)

Alice in Wonderland (1985) (CBS TV mini-series) (King of Hearts)

Little Dorrit (1988) (Lord Decimus Barnacle)

Biography

Further Information

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