TERENCE Morgan, who starred in numerous British films in the 1950s and played the title role in the weekly television adventure series Sir Francis Drake (1960-61), has died in Sussex at the age of 83.
His film career began when he was Laertes to Laurence Olivier's Hamlet in 1948, he was one of Gregory Peck's officers in the naval adventure film Captain Horatio Hornblower RN (1951) and the insensitive father of a deaf girl in Sandy Mackendrick's Mandy (1952), one of the few Ealing dramas that held its own against the studio's classic comedies.
He went on to starring roles in a string of thrillers and melodramas opposite Joan Collins, Diana Dors and other leading British actresses of the day, though most have slipped into obscurity.
Born in Lewisham in London in 1921, Morgan worked as a clerkwith Lloyd's of London, trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and acted in repertory and in the West End.
Olivier cast him in several theatre productions as well as giving him his first film role.
During the 1950s, he averaged two films a year, usually in a starring role, and the works included Encore (1951), an adaptation of short stories by Somerset Maugham, Svengali (1954) and The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships (1954), with Hedy Lamarr.
Many of his films were crime dramas, in which he could be found alternately on both sides of the law.
He was a Treasury investigator in the comedy Always a Bride (1953), a drug-smuggler thwarted by bird-watcher Joyce Grenfell in Forbidden Cargo (1954), a detective in They Can't Hang Me (1955), an office-worker led astray by blousy girlfriend Diana Dors in Tread Softly Stranger (1958) and a London gangster in Piccadilly Third Stop (1960), which starred Hollywood legend Joan Crawford.
On television, Sir Francis Drake was part of the fashion for historic adventure series that had already produced the likes of Robin Hood, William Tell and Ivanhoe, and Morgan's dashing portrayal owed more to Errol Flynn than to Elizabethan scholars.
He may have been playing the greatest seaman of the day, but he commanded nothing more than a refitted fishing boat that had also previously served as a harbour launch during the Second World War.
Nevertheless, each week Morgan could be found popping back and forth across the Atlantic and outrunning the Spanish armada.
There were 26 half-hour episodes, that were broadcast on ITV and sold to NBC in the United States. But while Roger Moore's career took off after Ivanhoe, Morgan found it difficult to build on his smallscreen success.
He had a starring role in Hammer's The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964), but it was not one of Hammer's best, and his return to high-seas adventure in The Fighting Corsair (1966) took four years to reach British cinemas and was dismissed by critics.
He played a married estate agent, whose tryst with Suzy Kendall is interrupted when three thugs invade their apartment in The Penthouse (1967), a thriller with a plot that is strikingly similar to both Cul-de-Sac (1966) and Performance (1968). But while they are regarded as classics, The Penthouse is all but forgotten.
By the end of the 1960s, Morgan had virtually retired from acting. In real life, as well as on screen, he felt an affinity with the sea. He ran a hotel in Hove and was involved in property development there.
He is survived by his wife and daughter.
Terence Morgan, actor; born December 8, 1921, died August 25, 2005.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article