RIP Patricia Morison Passes At 103 (1 Viewer)

[Garysb]

Here is clip of "Kiss Me Kate" from 1958, ten years after the Broadway production opened



Per Deadine. Known more for theater than film, she was the original "Kate" on Broadway in "Kiss Me, Kate"

Actress Patricia Morison, who brought a touch of grace and style to even her anti-heroine film roles, has died at age 103. She passed at her Los Angeles home of natural causes.

Morison had a huge presence in films of the 1940s, and appeared in such classics as Song of Bernadette and Dressed To Kill opposite such stars as Basil Rathbone, Ray Milland, Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, among many others.

Sporting long, flowing hair down to her hips, Morison often was portrayed as the villain in her many roles.

She also had an extensive Broadway career, appearing in the first staging of Kiss Me, Kate (based on a production of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew) and with Yul Brynner in The King and I.

Morison was born in 1915 in New York and took acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse, studied dance with Martha Graham, and made her Broadway debut at age 18 in the 1933 comedy Growing Pains. Her big break came in 1938, when she starred in the operetta The Two Bouquets opposite Leo G. Carroll and future Kiss Me, Kate co-star Fred Drake. Paramount came calling and signed her to a contract while naming her “The Fire and Ice Girl.” She made her film debut in Persons in Hiding (1939).

Her other films included Night in New Orleans (1942), Lady on a Train (1945), Song of the Thin Man(1947), Queen of the Amazons (1947), Tarzan and the Huntress (1947), Song Without End (1960) and Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976).

When Tony-winning actress Gertrude Lawrence died of liver cancer just months into the original Broadway production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King and I, Morison stepped in to play widowed British schoolteacher Anna Leonowens opposite Brynner. She also toured with him in a road production, all the while refusing his advances (“he was a naughty boy”).

She concluded her long show business career with an appearance on a 1989 episode of Cheers.

Morison celebrated her turning 100 in 2015 with a private party at the Pantages Theatre and an event at the Pasadena Playhouse.

No details on survivors or a memorial service have been released.

 

[Steve...O]

Sad news as she was still vibrant in her 11th decade. I don't believe she ever married so any survivors would be nieces/nephews at this point.

As far as I know, she was the last surviving adult actor who appeared in the Rathbone/Bruce series. Marjorie Lord having been the other until her passing a couple years back. (There is at least one child actor alive - Terry Kilburn).

 

[Matt Hough]

Her death notice was the first thing my eyes spied when I logged back on this afternoon, and I was so sad to read about it. She was a wonderful actress, singer, and performer. Love her in Dressed to Kill, the last of the Rathbone/Holmes movie series (gorgeous and ruthless, a diabolical combination). She did some audio commentaries that are treasurable, and we have some cast recordings of her that are likewise peerless. Thankfully, the Kiss Me Kate kinescope of the 1958 television production survives so we can see her perform as well as hear her from her cast recordings of the score.

R.I.P., dear lady.

 

[Bert Greene]

She's great in one of my favorite B-films, "Persons in Hiding" (1939). Always found her an appealing and elegant actress. One of the last of the leading ladies who went back to the 1930s. Who's left now, besides Olivia de Havilland, Mary Carlisle and Marsha Hunt? Maybe Fay McKenzie. Any others? My mind is a blank.

 

[Garysb]

Here is an interesting piece of information from the NY Times obituary.

Perhaps Ms. Morison’s most noteworthy screen role was one that audiences never saw. In the classic 1947 film noir “Kiss of Death,” she played the wife of a gangster played by Victor Mature. Her character is raped and commits suicide by asphyxiating herself in a kitchen oven. But her scenes were deemed inappropriate by the censors, and although her name remained in the opening credits, her entire part was removed.

 

[Arthur Powell]

She may have been the last living adult player from the Thin Man film series as well.
RIP

 

[bujaki]

I only wish she had played Kate in the film version! It would have been so much better. Great life and career. She hasn't really left us. RIP.

 

[Robin9]

Never having seen her on stage, I know Patricia Morison only from her films. One which hasn't been mentioned so far is The Fallen Sparrow where she was very good in a supporting role.

 

[Vic Pardo]

She played the Huntress in TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS (1947). She played Maid Marian in PRINCE OF THIEVES (1948). She co-starred with Lon Chaney Jr. in one of the Inner Sanctum mysteries, CALLING DR. DEATH (1943). She played George Sand in the Franz Liszt biopic SONG WITHOUT END (1960). And let's not forget the super-low-budget QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS (1947), in which she co-stars with a lot of stock footage. Also, she played Desdemona to Vincent Price's Othello in an episode of "Have Gun Will Travel" called "The Moor's Revenge."

 

[Robin9]

She played the Huntress in TARZAN AND THE HUNTRESS (1947). She played Maid Marian in PRINCE OF THIEVES (1948). She co-starred with Lon Chaney Jr. in one of the Inner Sanctum mysteries, CALLING DR. DEATH (1943). She played George Sand in the Franz Liszt biopic SONG WITHOUT END (1960). And let's not forget the super-low-budget QUEEN OF THE AMAZONS (1947), in which she co-stars with a lot of stock footage. Also, she played Desdemona to Vincent Price's Othello in an episode of "Have Gun Will Travel" called "The Moor's Revenge."

I'll have another look at Song Without End in the next few days. I'd forgotten about that film.

 

[TravisR]

She co-starred with Lon Chaney Jr. in one of the Inner Sanctum mysteries, CALLING DR. DEATH (1943).

I love those Universal horror & mystery movies so I'll always remember Morison for that one and Dressed To Kill.