Terence Morgan | |
---|---|
Born | Lewisham, London, England | 8 December 1921
Died | 25 August 2005 83) Brighton, East Sussex, England | (aged
Nationality | English |
Education | Ewell Castle School [1] |
Occupation | Actor |
Known for | Playing Sir Francis Drake in the TV show Sir Francis Drake |
Spouse | Georgina Victoria Symondson (m. 1947) (born 1926, died 2021) |
Terence Ivor Grant Morgan (8 December 1921 – 25 August 2005) was an English actor in theatre, cinema and television. [2] He played many "villain" roles in British film but is probably best remembered for his starring role in the TV historical adventure series Sir Francis Drake . [3]
Terence Morgan was born in Lewisham, London, [4] the eldest child of Frederick Rowland Morgan, a "manipulative surgeon" (i.e., a bonesetter) and Muriel M Morgan (née Grant). His uncle was the character actor Verne Morgan. [5] [6] From 1932 to 1937, he attended Ewell Castle School, Epsom. [7]
On leaving school, his first job was as a shipping clerk at Lloyd's of London, at a salary of £1/week. [8] He left after winning a scholarship to RADA, graduating in 1942. [9] On leaving RADA, he was called up into the Army's theatre unit, but after two years was invalided out (with claustrophobia), [10] and went into rep. On 23 March 1947, he married actress Georgina Victoria Symondson (known professionally as Georgina Jumel, daughter of actress and entertainer Betty Jumel) in Westminster Register Office. They had one daughter, Lyvia Lee Morgan.
In 1948 he joined the Old Vic Company at the instigation of Laurence Olivier, and played the role of Laertes opposite Olivier in the latter's 1948 film of Hamlet . He was allegedly the first actor in such a role to get fan mail from teenage girls. [11]
In 1951, in his third film role, he played a supporting role in Captain Horatio Hornblower with Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo. In Mandy (1952) he played the insensitive father of a deaf girl and in Encore in 1951 he played a cad risking the life of his wife. In 1953 he again played a villain in Turn the Key Softly as a crook who gets his girlfriend a prison sentence for helping him in a burglary. [12]
More nasty roles quickly followed with Always a Bride (1953) where he played a Treasury Investigator who turns bad as well as Forbidden Cargo in 1954 as a smuggler and Tread Softly Stranger (1958) where he is an embezzler. Two films he made in 1955 saw him cast in more positive roles—in March Hare he played an impoverished aristocrat riding a horse for the Derby, and in the espionage melodrama They Can't Hang Me , (which used Sidney Torch's theme music from The Black Museum for its own Title and Incidental music), he starred as a dapper Special Branch officer charged with discovering the identity of an enemy agent. One of his nastiest roles was in 1959, The Shakedown , when he played a pornographer and blackmailer. 1960 saw him as a petty thief in Piccadilly Third Stop . [13]
Morgan's biggest screen success came when he landed the title role in the ITV series Sir Francis Drake , but parts dried up after that as he was no longer seen as "the bad guy". [14]
He appeared in 30 films; other notable roles included the villainous brother of the mummy (Rameses VIII) in Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964) and the 1967 shocker The Penthouse where he is an estate agent who is forced to watch as his girlfriend is abused by thugs. The Lifetaker in 1976 had him back as the bad guy again where as a wealthy business man he plans ritualistic revenge on his wife and her lover. In 1986 he appeared in a series, King and Castle and in 1993, The Mystery of Edwin Drood . As roles dried up, Morgan bought a small hotel in Hove, Sussex, and ran it for some years before becoming a property developer. [15]
Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, known by his pen name Cecil Scott "C. S." Forester, was an English novelist known for writing tales of naval warfare, such as the 12-book Horatio Hornblower series depicting a Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic Wars.
Hamlet is a 1948 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, adapted and directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. Hamlet was Olivier's second film as director and the second of the three Shakespeare films that he directed. Hamlet was the first British film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is the first sound film of the play in English.
Hamlet, also known as Hamlet 2000, is a 2000 American drama film written and directed by Michael Almereyda, set in contemporary New York City, and based on the Shakespeare play of the same name. Ethan Hawke plays Hamlet as a film student, Kyle MacLachlan co-stars as Uncle Claudius, with Diane Venora as Gertrude, Liev Schreiber as Laertes, Julia Stiles as Ophelia, Steve Zahn as Rosencrantz, Bill Murray as Polonius, and Sam Shepard as Hamlet's father.
Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories by C. S. Forester. He later became the subject of films and radio and television programmes, and C. Northcote Parkinson elaborated a "biography" of him, The True Story of Horatio Hornblower.
Robert Rutherford Beatty was a Canadian actor who worked in film, television and radio for most of his career and was especially known in the UK.
Virginia Mayo was an American actress and dancer. She was in a series of popular comedy films with Danny Kaye and was Warner Bros. biggest box-office draw in the late 1940s. She also co-starred in the 1946 Oscar-winning movie The Best Years of Our Lives.
Terence Fisher was a British film director best known for his work for Hammer Films.
Leslie Gilbert Dwyer was an English film and television actor.
Russell Waters was a Scottish film actor.
Geoffrey Keen was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many films. He is well known for playing British Defence Minister Sir Frederick Gray in the James Bond films.
Richard Keith Johnson was an English stage and screen actor, writer and producer. Described by Michael Coveney as "a very 'still' actor – authoritative, calm and compelling," he was a staple performer in British films and television from the 1960s until the 2010s, often playing urbane sophisticates and authoritative characters. He had a distinguished theatrical career, notably as a cornerstone member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and was once acclaimed as "the finest romantic actor of his generation."
Patricia Haines was an English actress, best known for her television work. She was married to Michael Caine from 1954 to 1958.
Prince Hamlet is the title character and protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet (1599–1601). He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius, and son of King Hamlet, the previous King of Denmark. At the beginning of the play, he is conflicted whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and struggles with his own sanity along the way. By the end of the tragedy, Hamlet has caused the deaths of Polonius, Laertes, Claudius, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two acquaintances of his from childhood. He is also indirectly involved in the deaths of his love Ophelia (drowning) and of his mother Gertrude.
Thomas Heathcote was a British character actor, a former protégé of Laurence Olivier.
Eugene Francis Deckers was a Belgian actor.
Moultrie Rowe Kelsall was a Scottish film and television character actor, who began his career in the industry as a radio director and television producer. He also contributed towards architectural conservation.
Alec Mango was an English actor. He is best known for portraying El Supremo in the 1951 Captain Horatio Hornblower, he also appeared in South of Algiers (1953), The Strange World of Planet X (1958), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Danger Man (1961), and Frankenstein Created Woman (1967). He also appeared in the TV series, The Adventures of Robin Hood. One of his last TV appearances was Channel 4's TV Movie The Gourmet as Rossi on 4th of January 1987.
Piccadilly Third Stop is a 1960 British thriller film directed by Wolf Rilla and starring Terence Morgan, Yoko Tani and John Crawford. A wealthy playboy hires a gang of criminals to help him steal £100,000.
Tread Softly Stranger is a 1958 British crime drama directed by Gordon Parry and starring Diana Dors, George Baker and Terence Morgan. The film was shot in black-and-white in film noir style, and its setting in an industrial town in northern England mirrors the kitchen sink realism movement coming into vogue in English drama and film at the time. The screenplay was adapted from the stage play Blind Alley (1953) by Jack Popplewell.
Turn the Key Softly is a 1953 British drama film directed by Jack Lee and starring Yvonne Mitchell, Joan Collins, Kathleen Harrison, and Terence Morgan. Lee and producer Maurice Cowan also wrote the screenplay, based on the 1951 novel of the same title by John Brophy, dealing with the first 24 hours of freedom for three women released on probation from prison on the same morning. It was shot at Pinewood Studios and on location around London. The film's sets were designed by the art director Donald M. Ashton. It was released by Rank's General Film Distributors.