Catacombs Reference Library
Space 1999 - ATV PRESS RELEASE

BARRY MORSE

The most surprising thing about Barry Morse himself, perhaps, is that he is a Londoner and as near as could be a genuine Cockney without actually being born within the sound of Bow Bells.

A lot of people believe him to be American or Canadian American because of all the films and TV shows he has done in the United States, becoming one of the few Englishmen to be cast as an American; Canadian because he has spent a great deal of his life there, still regards it as his second home and still does a lot of work there.

"I am fortunate, I suppose", he says, "in always having been a natural mimic. It's never been difficult for me to pick up accents".

It was this sense of mimicry that first made him think about becoming an actor. At the time, he was an errand boy, cycling around London and delivering samples to potential customers for a glass manufacturing company for a wage of fifteen shillings a week.

Barry's professional debut was at the People's Theatre in "If I Were King". Four years of repertory followed, then his London West End debut in "School for Slavery". His next step was to become producer, director and star of "The Voice of the Turtle" on tour.

He went into films with a part in the Will Hay comedy "The Goose Steps Out", side by side with another newcomer, Peter Ustinov. "At that time," he chuckles, "Peter was as slim as Barbara Bain is now and I had a head of hair:"

He was very early on the scene with television work, and he progressed to films as a character actor in such pictures as "Thunder Rock", "When We Are Married", "There's A Future In It", "This Man is Mine", "Mrs. Fitzherbert" and "Daughter of Darkness''.

He married very early in his career, when meeting Canadian actress Sydney Sturgess, who was in repertory with him. They had a son, Hayward, (now a successful actor) and a daughter, Melanie, (who, since following in parental acting footsteps, has become an Artistes' Agent in Canada), and an unexpected change came in Barry's career when he and his wife went to Canada to display their children to her relatives.

Television was just starting up in Canada, and Barry remained in Toronto to become a TV producer, director and actor, winning the Best TV Actor Award five times.

He also visited America for Hollywood productions, both films and television, with guest roles in such series as "Dr. Kildare" (as a Romanian drug-smuggler!) and "Wagon Train" (as a drunken Irish journalist). And, of course, he won international acclaim as Lieut. Gerard in "The Fugitive". And in 1968 this incredibly versatile man was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Drama Department of Yale University, spending one semester lecturing there:

His return to England was to visit Hayward and Melanie who were studying at RADA. Roger Moore caught up with him, and Barry appeared in an episode of "The Saint". It was the resumption of his English career but, although he does a lot of his work in Britain these days, he has returned to Canada numerous times to do TV work both as actor and producer, has played Broadway in "Hadrian the Seventh", has produced plays' both in America and England, has been in such TV shows as "Summer and Smoke", The Poet Game", "Sweeney Todd", and the serial of Henry James' "The Golden Bowl".

On completing "The Zoo Gang" in England, he went to Canada again for more television work including a guest role in the "Starlost" series, two documentaries about his favourite author George Bernard Shaw, portraying Shaw, a series on social history "The Days Before Yesterday", for which he did the commentary, a documentary about Jerusalem (which meant a location trip there) and a radio series on Aldous Huxley.