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Greg Morris

Biography

Greg Morris

Edit

Overview

  • Born
    September 27, 1933 · Cleveland, Ohio, USA
  • Died
    August 27, 1996 · Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (cancer)
  • Birth name
    Francis Gregory Alan Morris
  • Height
    6′ 2½″ (1.89 m)

Biography

    • Born in Cleveland, Morris came to Hollywood in the early 1960s. His acting experience at that time consisted of a few minor roles on the Seattle stage. He found work appearing on Television series such as The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961) and The Twilight Zone (1959) before being cast in Mission: Impossible (1966). Morris played quiet, efficient electronics expert Barney Collier from 1966-1973. After the show ended, Morris continued to appear in other Television series and a couple of Television movies. In 1979, he went to Las Vegas to film the television series Vega$ (1978) in which he played Lt. David Nelson. He liked the city so much he decided to stay. This series lasted 2 years. In 1981, Morris survived a serious road accident and did not reappear on television for years. In 1989, he appeared in a short-lived remake of Mission: Impossible (1988). In 1990, he was diagnosed with cancer.
      - IMDb mini biography by: Tony Fontana <tony.fontana@spacebbs.com>

Family

  • Spouse
      Lee Morris(September 19, 1956 - October 26, 1995) (divorced, 3 children)
  • Children
      Iona Morris
      Linda Morris
      Phil Morris
  • Parents
      Francis Williams
      Francis Williams

Trivia

  • His father was a trumpet player who left the family when Greg was three years old. He spent part of his youth in New York, where his mother was a secretary to A. Philip Randolph, the black labor unionist leader, civil rights activist and socialist politician, who in 1925 organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first predominantly African-American labor union.
  • Had three children: Phil Morris, Iona Morris and Linda Morris. Each of them have had show business careers. Phil and Iona both became actors and Linda became a film production executive. In early 2000, Iona performed a one-woman show to pay tribute to her father. The show, "For You", used the same title her father had used on a jazz album he released in the 1970s.
  • A serious car accident resulted in major reconstructive plastic surgery which severely curtailed his career in 1981. He finally reappeared on television after a long absence with a short-lived remake of Mission: Impossible (1988), which also featured his son, Phil Morris, in 1989. Greg had a cameo role.
  • While playing his supporting role as "Lieutenant Dave Nelson" on Vega$ (1978), he found the filming location in Nevada to his liking -- so much so that he and his wife, Lee Morris, eventually moved to Las Vegas.
  • Shortly before his death, he went to see the Mission: Impossible (1996) movie; he disliked it so much he walked out less than an hour after the film started.

Quotes

  • "It's an abomination." - describing the 1996 movie version of Mission: Impossible (1996).
  • I always had an awareness of the black revolution. When I was a kid, 9 or 10, I used to walk down Seventh Avenue and 125th Street with a sandwich sign on my back that said "Down With Jim Crow". -- GM, 1970 interview
  • [Mission: Impossible (1966) was] seven of the most fun years of my career. If I had turned down the role, Bruce Geller was going to ask a blond, blue-eyed Scandinavian. The part had nothing to do with the fact that I was black.

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