Howard Morris

Comedic actor Howard ("Howie") Jerome Morris, of Jewish heritage, was born in The Bronx, New York, on September 4, 1919. This short, quicksilver comic of TV's "Golden Age" also went on to possess one of the finest vocal instruments for animation. Classically trained on the Shakespearean stage, he forged his own destiny in an entirely different direction after a chance meeting with 'Carl Reiner' (qv) in a radio workshop. Following military service in World War II, in which the two entertained troops together (they appeared in Army productions of "Hamlet" and "Macbeth" directed by none other than 'Maurice Evans' (qv), they returned to the professional entertainment fold and appeared together in a 1946 road company of the stage musical "Call Me Mister." Howie also went on to be featured on Broadway as Rosencrantz in "Hamlet" and in the original production of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." He and Reiner would reconnect when asked to come aboard as part of the acting repertory team on _Your Show of Shows (1950)_ (qv) and it's successor _Caesar's Hour (1954)_ (qv), the classic sketch TV show of the 1950s that starred 'Sid Caesar' (qv) and 'Imogene Coca' (qv). After years of "second banana" TV success, Howie wished for "top banana" stardom and sought work as such with varying degrees of success.On the New York stage he co-starred as the leprechaun Og in a 1960 revival of "Finian's Rainbow" and, from the early 1960s on, his mastery of dialects and vocal versatility made him an important staple at the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, offering hundreds upon hundreds of voices for _The Flintstones (1960)_ (qv), _The Jetsons (1962)_ (qv), _Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1971)_ (qv), and other such classic Saturday morning cartoon shows as well as the popular voices of Adam Ant, Gerald McBoing-Boing, Beetle Bailey and Jughead Jones. He would intersperse this work with some catchy offbeat characterizations in front of the camera, usually comedic but occasionally dramatic, on both the big and small screens. He added zest to a host of standard comedy films including _Boys' Night Out (1962)_ (qv) with 'Kim Novak' (qv), _The Nutty Professor (1963)_ (qv) and _Way... Way Out (1966)_ (qv), both with 'Jerry Lewis' (qv), and 'Mel Brooks' (qv)' spoofs _High Anxiety (1977)_ (qv) and _History of the World: Part I (1981)_ (qv). As for television, Howie directed 'Danny Thomas' (qv) and 'Andy Griffith' (qv) in their respective sitcoms, and made a wonderfully eccentric impression on-camera as the grizzled, bucolic, rock-tossing Ernest T. Bass on Griffith's 60's show. The role became such a popular character that Howie was invited to play it sporadically for three seasons.Morris also turned to film directing and helmed such fluff as _Who's Minding the Mint? (1967)_ (qv), _With Six You Get Eggroll (1968)_ (qv) and _Don't Drink the Water (1969)_ (qv), the last-mentioned written by 'Woody Allen' (qv). Seen more than heard during his twilight career, he continued on with directing commercials and popped up here and there well into the 1990s in comic cameos and as a vocal artist. Married five times (twice to one woman) with four children in all, Howie suffered from poor health in later years and died of congestive heart failure at age 85, on May 21, 2005. He was buried at Hillside Memorial Park in Los Angeles.::Gary Brumburgh / [email protected]