An actor with character…
Wayne Morris
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He was the boy next door who dreamed of being an actor and learning to fly. He realized both of his dreams and then, in 1940, like a lot of American boys, he left them all behind to go to war. When he came back Hollywood had changed. The boy-next-door roles were gone and the hero roles had gone to those who stayed behind. So this real life action hero saddled up and rode across the screen in countless Westerns until fate changed his plans forever.
 "The Star Factory" |
Bert DeWayne Morris, Jr. was born in Los Angeles, California on February 17, 1914 not far from the movie studios where his dream would someday take him. After high school he attended the Los Angeles Junior College where, contrary to studio publicity, this big, blond likeable guy joined the cheerleading squad not the football team. He also studied acting before taking a short sabbatical to work as a forest ranger. When he returned Wayne continued his studies at the famed Pasadena Playhouse, an accredited college of dramatic arts known affectionately in Hollywood as the “Star Factory”. It was at the Playhouse that a Warner talent scout watched one of Wayne’s performances and signed him up for a screen test. Wayne must have made a big impression at the studio because he was given a contract and made his screen debut in the 1936 production “China Clipper”.
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After a succession of bit parts, Wayne finally got the title role in “Kid Galahad” playing the bellhop turned prizefighter who “falls in love with his manager’s daughter while his manager’s girlfriend falls in love with him”. It was his breakthrough role but as “Kid” Wayne had to hold his own in a cast of such established stars as Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson and Jane Bryan. (Note: This movie was remade in 1968 as an Elvis Presley musical and the original was re-titled “The Battling Bellhop” for television). However the movie was held back until after Wayne finished his first Western “ Land Beyond the Law” with Dick Foran.
 "Brother Rat" 1938 |
In 1938 Wayne had only made 2 pictures. One of them was “Brother Rat” with Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman. The title came from a nickname students called one another at Virginia Military Institute. Then Warner Bros. seemed to forget Wayne was even on the lot. Unsigned at the moment, he trotted over to Republic to try out as a replacement for John Wayne in the “Three Mesquiteers” series. John had replaced Robert Livingston as Stony Brooke but was leaving to go on to bigger and better things. But, wouldn’t you know it, Republic just went and re-signed Livingston. So Morris took the next contract Warner offered and went back to work there. 1939 saw the feast after the famine with 7 films in succession. One was “Flight Angels” with Dennis Morgan and Jane Wyman. Wayne loved planes and really got into the spirit of the film by taking flying lessons on his time off...and he was very good at it.
 On the set of "Flight Angels" 1939 |
In 1939 the 24-year-old Morris met tobacco heiress Leonora (Bubbles) Schinasi, 18, and married her in a New York café at midnight on January 9, 1939. It was not a marriage made in heaven because the actual union only lasted about 6 months. It was long enough to produce Wayne’s first child, son Michael. Leonora later became the third wife of producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. and the author of several children’s books. Wayne would remarry in 1942 and this time he did it right. She was Patricia O’Rourke, the Olympic swimmer, mother of his other two children and sister of Republic Studio star Peggy Stewart.
 The real thing! |
Wayne made 11 films between 1939 and 1941. One of them was the classic western “Bad Men of Missouri” telling the story of Cole Younger (Dennis Morgan) and his outlaw brothers with Arthur Kennedy as Jim Younger and Wayne as the youngest Younger Bob. But the sounds of war were echoing from across the ocean and Wayne became one of the first Hollywood actors to enlist. He joined the Naval Reserves where he completed his flight training and, because he was good at it, he spent a year as a flight instructor.
 ...and the real thing x 7 |
But Wayne Morris wanted to be a fighter pilot but he was turned down several times because the Navy considered him too tall (6’2”). Wayne went to the top....his brother-in-law Commander David Campbell, the top Navy Ace of all time and a future Medal of Honor winner and finally got his wish. Assigned to the carrier Essex in the Pacific, Wayne flew a Grumman F6F Hellcat into the fray returning at least three times with a plane so full of holes that it was dumped into the Pacific as “unfit for duty”. He flew 57 missions and his record showed that he had downed 7 Japanese planes and helped sink 5 enemy ships earning four Distinguished Flying Crosses and two Air Medals for valor and courage.
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 The Air Medal |
When the war ended and Wayne Morris returned to Hollywood, he found things had changed and the career he had left behind him was no longer his to claim. The studio left him twiddling his thumbs for over a year. Former Warner producer Mark Hellinger now over at Universal-International tried to borrow him for the starring role in his new picture “The Killers” but the studio refused, still hurting over Hellinger’s defection to start his own independent company. A virtual unknown, Burt Lancaster got the part and it made him a star. Ironically, the first film Wayne did was on loan to Fox for “Deep Valley” with Ida Lupino and Dane Clark. Then suddenly Wayne was given a succession of good co-starring roles…”The Voice of the Turtle” in 1947 with Ronald Reagan and Eleanor Parker, 1948’s “The Time of Your Life” ( on loan to United Artists) with James Cagney and William Bendix. “John Loves Mary” with Ronald Reagan and Jack Carson and “A Kiss in the Dark” with David Niven and Jane Wyman. In 1949 Morris saddled up for his third Western this time playing the role of Cole Younger for Fox in “The Younger Brothers”.
 "The Fighting Lawman" 1953 |
He returned to Westerns again at Columbia in 1951 with Rod Cameron in “Stage to Tucson” . In 1952 he went to Monogram for “Desert Pursuit” an off-beat Western where he and Virginia Grey were chased through Death Valley by Arab-like characters on camels. By 1953 the studio was Allied Artists and B-Westerns all the way. He did another picture with Virginia Grey called “The Fighting Lawman” with the publicity tag “He roared through Arizona with a ready grin…a quicker draw…and a blast of lead for those who blocked his way.” Wayne was a bit more conservative in his dress than most of the saddle actors of the time and perhaps a little beefier by then and his no-name horse was never the star of the show. But he saw plenty of action and B-Western fans consider him one of the best. He also did television with guest shots on everything from “Ozzie and Harriet” to “Gunsmoke” and “Wagon Train”. If a character had character Wayne took the role.
 "The Star of Texas" 1953 . Wayne is wearing the white hat |
Morris returned to Warner Brothers in 1953 to co-star with Randolph Scott in “Riding Shotgun” and then went off to England to make four films for release in the US. When he returned it was off to Broadway where he made his stage debut as the down-and-out fighter in William Saroyan’s “The Cave Dwellers”. But it was Wayne’s portrayal of the weakling Lieutenant Roget in Stanley Kubrick’s “Path of Glory” that could be seen as his finest work. Had he lived it would have been a pivotal point in his career.
 In Germany on a tour of military bases in 1954 |
On September 14, 1959 Wayne was aboard the aircraft carrier USS Bon Homme Richard as a guest of his old wartime commander. As he stood on the bridge watching aerial maneuvers off the coast of Monterrey, Morris suddenly collapsed and died of a massive heart attack. He was only 45 years old.
 A young, smiling Wayne Morris |
Lieutenant Commander Bert DeWayne Morris was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors near his brother, 2nd Lt. Richard B. Morris, a B-17 pilot shot down during WWII.
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If every person is to be measured by their deeds, Wayne Morris stands very tall indeed!
