The Best Second Banana And
The In Crowd
In film and television,
Harry Morgan played the "second banana" for a half-century and no one did it better. From
Westerns to comedies, his versatility showed through and made him familiar to millions
. He is best known for two roles -
Officer Bill Gannon of the
LAPD working with Sgt.
Joe Friday, and Col.
Sherman Potter of the 4077th, the commanding officer in
MASH.
Dobie Gray was a pop/soul/ rock singer who recorded an iconic hit in the 1960's, The In Crowd and another in the
1970's,
Drift Away.
Harry Morgan (born
Harry Bratsberg,often spelled
Harry Bratsburg;[
6][7][8][
9] April 10,
1915 --
December 7,
2011) was a prolific
American actor and director, whose television and film career spanned six decades.
Morgan's major roles included
Pete Porter in both
December Bride (1954--1959) and
Pete and Gladys (1960--1962); Officer Bill Gannon on
Dragnet (1967--1970);
Amos Coogan on
Hec Ramsey (1972--1974); and
Colonel Sherman T. Potter in
M*A*S*H (1975--1983) and AfterMASH (1983--1984). Morgan also appeared in more than
100 films.
Morgan made his screen debut (originally using
the name "Henry Morgan") in the
1942 movie To the Shores of Tripoli. His screen name later would become "
Henry '
Harry' Morgan" and eventually Harry Morgan, to avoid confusion with the popular humorist of the same name
.
In the same year, Morgan appeared in the movie
Orchestra Wives as a young man pushing his way to the front of a ballroom crowd with his date to hear
Glenn Miller's band play. A few years later, still credited as
Henry Morgan, he was cast in the role of pianist
Chummy MacGregor in the 1954 biopic
The Glenn Miller Story.
Morgan continued to play a number of significant roles on the big screen in such films as
The Ox-Bow Incident (1943);
Wing and a Prayer (
1944);
Dragonwyck (1946);
The Big Clock (1948);
High Noon (
1952); and several films in the
1950s for director
Anthony Mann, including
Bend of the River (1952);
Thunder Bay (
1953); The Glenn Miller Story (1954);
The Far Country (
1955) and
Strategic Air Command (1955). In his later film career, he appeared in
Inherit the Wind (1960);
How the West Was Won (1962) (as
Ulysses S. Grant);
John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (
1965);
Frankie and Johnny (1966);
Support Your Local Sheriff! (
1969);
Support Your Local Gunfighter! (
1971);
Snowball Express (
1972);
The Shootist (
1976);
The Wild Wild West Revisited (
1979); and a cameo in the film version of Dragnet (
1987) with
Dan Aykroyd and
Tom Hanks.
Morgan hosted the
NBC radio series
Mystery in the Air starring
Peter Lorre in
1947. On
CBS, he played Pete Porter in Pete and Gladys (1960--1962), with
Cara Williams as wife Gladys. Pete and Gladys was a spinoff of December Bride (1954--1959), starring
Spring Byington, a show in which Morgan had a popular recurring role. In
1950 Morgan appeared as an obtrusive, alcohol-addled hotel clerk in the Dragnet radio episode "The
Big Boys".
In the 1964--1965 season, Morgan co-starred as Seldom
Jackson in the 26-week NBC comedy/drama
Kentucky Jones, starring
Dennis Weaver.
Morgan is even more widely recognized as Officer Bill Gannon, Joe Friday's partner in the revived version of Dragnet (1967--1970).
Morgan had also appeared with Dragnet star
Jack Webb in two film noir movies,
Dark City (1950) and
Appointment with Danger (1951), and was an early regular member of Jack Webb's stock company of actors on the original Dragnet radio show. Morgan later worked on two other shows for Webb: 1971's
The D.A. and the 1972--1974 western Hec Ramsey. Morgan also appeared in at least one episode of "
Gunsmoke".
As
Colonel Potter in M*A*S*H with
Alan Alda and
Mike Farrell
Morgan's first appearance on M*A*S*H was in the show's third season (1974--1975), when he played eccentric
Major General Bartford
Hamilton Steele in "
The General Flipped at Dawn", which originally aired on
September 10,
1974.
The following season, Morgan joined the cast of M*A*S*H as Colonel Sherman T. Potter. Morgan replaced
McLean Stevenson, who had left the show at the end of the previous season. Col.
Potter was a career army officer who was
a firm yet good-humored, caring father figure to the people under his command.
In
1980, Morgan won an
Emmy award for his performance on M*A*S*H. When asked if he was a better actor after working with the show's talented cast, Morgan responded, "I don't know about that, but it's made me a better human being."[15] After the end of the series, Morgan reprised the Potter role in a short-lived spinoff series, AfterMASH.
Morgan also kept busy appearing in several
Disney movies throughout the decade, including
The Barefoot Executive, Snowball Express,
Charley and the Angel,
The Apple Dumpling Gang,
The Cat from Outer Space (opposite McLean Stevenson) and The Apple Dumpling Gang
Rides Again.
- published: 05 Mar 2012
- views: 6227