Friday, April 11, 2014

Chester Morris





Chester Morris was in the movie CORSAIR with Thelma Todd ( as "Alison Loyd" ). Among other things.

Chester Morris

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
      
Chester Morris
Chester Morris in Corsair.jpg
in Corsair (1931)
BornJohn Chester Brooks Morris
(1901-02-16)February 16, 1901
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 11, 1970(1970-09-11) (aged 69)
New Hope, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1917–1970
Spouse(s)Lillian Kenton Barker (1940-19??; 1 child)
Suzanne Kilborn (1927-1939; 2 children); divorced
Chester Morris (February 16, 1901 – September 11, 1970) was an American actor, who starred in the Boston Blackie detective series of the 1940s.

Career

He was born John Chester Brooks Morris in New York City, the son of Broadway stage actor William Morris and the performer Etta Hawkins. He made his Broadway debut at 17 in Lionel Barrymore's The Copperhead. At 17, he billed himself as "the youngest leading man in the country". His film career began in 1917 in An Amateur Orphan. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Alibi (1929) directed by Roland West. He also starred in The Bat Whispers (1930) and Corsair (1931), both directed by West.
He starred in the early prison film The Big House (1930). His career gradually declined in the late 1930s, with roles in B-movies such as Smashing the Rackets with Edward J. Pawley (1938) and Five Came Back (1939). His career revived when from 1941 to 1949 he played the character Boston Blackie in 14 low-budget movies produced by Columbia Pictures, starting with Meet Boston Blackie, and one season of radio shows.
Morris was also well known as a stage magic enthusiast. He often performed as a magician during the personal appearance tours in theaters promoting his latest films. Unlike many stars who simply greeted audiences with a few words before the screening of their film, Morris was comfortable on stage and presented an entire vaudeville magic act, featuring live animals and larger stage feats such as nearly severing an audience volunteer's head in a prop guillotine*. During World War II he performed hundreds of free magic shows for the U.S.O. at army and navy camps, war bond drives and hospitals. In 1944, a B-24 "Liberator" airplane was christened "The Chester and Lili Morris" in honor of him and his wife, and their contributions to the United States war effort. Morris also contributed original tricks to magician's journals and often incorporated magic into his film performances, including "Boston Blackie and The Law" (1946.)
Through the 1950s and 1960s, Morris worked mainly in television, with a recurring role as detective Lieutenant Max Ritter in the CBS summer replacement series, Diagnosis: Unknown, which aired from July to September 1960. He also made occasional forays into regional theatre, and a few films, notably a role in the science-fiction film The She Creature, where he played Dr. Carlo Lombardi. It was reported in Variety that Morris's Brylcreem expenses exceeded any other item in the film's budget.[citation needed] After his last Boston Blackie movie, he performed in only three more films, including his final role in The Great White Hope (1970) which was released after his death.

Personal life

Morris was married to Suzanne Kilborn from September 30, 1927 to their divorce in November 1939. They had two children, Brooks and Cynthia. He married Lillian Kenton Barker on November 30, 1940. They had a son, Kenton.
Morris was dying of cancer when he committed suicide in room 202 at the former Holiday Inn of New Hope by taking an overdose of barbiturates in 1970.[1] At the time of his death, he was appearing in a stage production of The Caine Mutiny Court Martial at the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope, Pennsylvania.[2]

Partial filmography

References

  1. ^ Veteran Actor Chester Morris is Found Dead UPI. The Times-News - Sep 12, 1970
  2. ^ Veteran Actor Chester Morris is Found Dead UPI. The Times-News - Sep 12, 1970
Boston Blackish and the Law 1946

External links

Portal iconBiography portal
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chester Morris.

* I would assume that this was a magic trick, although they made it sound as if an actual guillotining had somehow been unsuccessful.


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Chester Morris had made ALIBI and THE BAT WHISPERS for Roland West, and they were hits, but when they made CORSAIR it was not a success. Not only that, but because Roland West would not allow him to make DRACULA for Universal, he missed out on a chance to be in one of the most famous classic movies of all time. But Boston Blackie was one of Columbia's most profitable movie series during the period it was in production. So Chester Morris' place in movie history is assured, even if he is primarily associated with B movies.


                                                                     CORSAIR

 
 
 
 
With "Alison Loyd", as Thelma Todd was billed in this movie.






With Thelma Todd and Frank McHugh.

 
 
 
 
 
With Thelma Todd

 
 
 
 
 
With Thelma Todd

 
 
 
 
With Mae Busch in ALIBI ( 1929 )
 
 
Note whose name was actually on the bottom of the picture.
 
 
 
 
With Fay Wray in THEY MET IN A TAXI, 1936

 
 
 
 
With Victor McLagen and Jean Rogers in ROUGH, TOUGH, AND READY. 

 
 
 
 HIGH EXPLOSIVE

 
Jean Parker worked with Laurel and Hardy.
 
 
 
 
Boston Blackie

 
 
 
 







BOSTON BLACKIE:
http://bostonblackie.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Blackie

https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Boston_Blackie_Singles


CORSAIR:
http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2012/11/corsair.html

http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/11/corsair-items-from-fan-magazines.html

http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2014/02/corsair-herald.html

http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/11/corsair-promotion.html


DRACULA:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula_(1931_film)


Chester Morris:
http://bostonblackie.com/morrisbio.html


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1 comment:

  1. Scott Allen NollenOctober 24, 2018 at 12:15 AM

    Although Morris' death was from a barbiturate overdose, there has never ben any evidence that he committed suicide. There was no suicide note, he had been in fine spirits while working ever since he received his diagnosis, and the position of his body when found suggests accidental rather than deliberate overdose. The book, first-ever on Morris, by my wife and me will help put these rumors to rest, we hope.

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