Howard Morris, rubber-faced TV/film clown, dies

Not a mention that he played Lewis' father in The Nutty Professor! Anyway, he was great with Caesar, and even in High Anxiety I s'pose...

Howard Morris, an Actor in Television Comedies, Dies at 85
By MARGALIT FOX

Howard Morris, a character actor in the Golden Age of television best known for his work with Sid Caesar and for his brief, memorable role as the manic hillbilly poet Ernest T. Bass on "The Andy Griffith Show," died on Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 85.

No cause of death was announced, but Mr. Morris's son, David, told The Los Angeles Times that his father had had heart problems in recent years.

With Carl Reiner, Mr. Morris formed the comic ensemble that supported Mr. Caesar and Imogene Coca on "Your Show of Shows," broadcast on NBC from 1950 to 1954. He also worked as a TV director and was a familiar voice in television cartoons and commercials.

Five feet six and slightly built, Mr. Morris was so gifted a vocal performer that early in his career he got a job that involved impersonating inanimate objects, among them boxing gloves and a chopping block. (The job was on the radio.) On television, he was the voice of the Qantas Airways koala and the cartoon character Atom Ant.

Howard Morris was born in the Bronx in 1919. He learned early to joke about life's darkest moments: when he was a youth, his father lost his job in the Depression and shortly afterward died of a heart attack.

"He died of unemployment," Mr. Morris often said.

Mr. Morris attended New York University, majoring in drama, until World War II interrupted his studies. He served in the Pacific, where he later performed as part of an entertainment unit. The troupe's repertory, Mr. Morris recalled, ranged from "Hamlet" to "Five Jerks in a Jeep."

After the war, Mr. Morris appeared on Broadway, playing Rosencrantz in Mike Todd's production of "Hamlet," which featured returned servicemen; he also appeared in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."

Mr. Morris owed his television career to his short stature and stout lapels. In 1949, Mr. Caesar was starring on television in "The Admiral Broadway Revue," a precursor of "Your Show of Shows." He needed a little guy to play a character called Weasel; the actor had to be light enough for Mr. Caesar to pick him up by the lapel of his coat.

Mr. Morris auditioned for Mr. Caesar and the show's producer, Max Liebman. Mr. Caesar reached out his hand, grabbed and lifted Mr. Morris off the ground. He turned to his producer. "Max!" he cried, with Yiddish-inflected syntax. "Him! Get!" On "Your Show of Shows," Mr. Morris used his size to comic effect. In one memorable sketch, a sendup of "This Is Your Life," he played Uncle Goopy, a man so devoted to the guest of honor (Mr. Caesar) that he latched onto his leg and refused to let go. As the live broadcast unfolded, Mr. Caesar was forced to drag Mr. Morris behind him as he walked across the stage.

Mr. Morris appeared in Mr. Caesar's next program, "Caesar's Hour," and in a 1967 reunion show, "The Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, Howard Morris Special."

As a director, he worked on "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Hogan's Heroes" and "Get Smart." Mr. Morris appeared in many films, notably Mel Brooks's "History of the World: Part I" (1981), and directed several others, including "Don't Drink the Water" (1969), by Woody Allen.

Mr. Morris was divorced five times, The Los Angeles Times reported. Besides his son, he is survived by three daughters, Gabrielle, Kim and Devra; and three grandchildren, The Times said.

Mr. Morris was able to find comedy in absolutely anything, as Mr. Brooks recalled in a 1998 article in The Minneapolis Star Tribune. After Mr. Morris's father died, so the story went, the young man went down to the Hudson River to scatter his ashes. A breeze came up, blowing the ashes onto Mr. Morris's good suit.

"So where do you consider your father's final resting place to be?" Mr. Brooks asked him.

Mr. Morris replied: "I would have to say Grand Cleaners on Park Avenue."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company