Barboura Morris

{{Infobox person

| name = Barboura Morris

| image = Barboura Morris.jpg

| alt =

| caption = Morris in The Wasp Woman (1959)

| birth_name = Barboura O'Neill

| birth_date = {{Birth date|mf=yes|1932|10|22}}

| birth_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S.

| death_date = {{Death date and age|mf=yes|1975|10|23|1932|10|22}}

| death_place = Santa Monica, California, U.S.

| resting_place = Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery

| alma_mater = UCLA

| occupation = Actress

| years_active = 1956–1970

| spouse = {{marriage|Monte Hellman|1954|1958|end=divorced}}
Donald Freed
({{abbr|m.|married}} 1965; {{abbr|div.|divorced}} 19??){{Cite web|url=http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/691/Barboura+Morris/index.html|title = Barboura Morris - the Private Life and Times of Barboura Morris. Barboura Morris Pictures}}

| children = 1

}}

Barboura Morris (born Barboura O'Neill; October 22, 1932 – October 23, 1975) was an American actress and writer. She is most remembered for her roles in American International Pictures productions.

Early years

Morris was born Barboura O'Neill[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/barboura_morris/biography Barboura Morris at Rotten Tomatoes] in Los Angeles. She graduated from UCLA, where she won the Best Actress awards two times. Shortly after, she joined the Stumptown Players, a 16-person stock theater company in Guerneville which was composed of fellow California university undergraduates and alumni.{{cite news|title=It's Like a Madhouse As Stumptowners Get Set for Opening Night|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13049725/barboura_morris/|work=The Press Democrat|date=June 27, 1954|location=California, Santa Rosa|page=20|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = August 12, 2017}} {{Open access}}{{cite news|title=Oh, To Be an Actor|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13049566/barboura_morris/|work=The Petaluma Argus-Courier|date=June 26, 1954|location=California, Petaluma|page=2|via = Newspapers.com|accessdate = August 12, 2017}} {{Open access}}

Career

= Acting =

Fellow Stumptown player Roger Corman gave Morris a leading role in the cult classic Sorority Girl (1957). She appeared in many other low-budget movies for Corman, such as The Wasp Woman and A Bucket of Blood. Morris was often involved in his work with American International Productions. Notably, she starred opposite Charles Bronson in 1958's Machine-Gun Kelly and costarred with Peter Fonda in 1967's The Trip, written by Jack Nicholson.

Morris' final film role was as Anne Sullivan in Helen Keller and Her Teacher, a 1970 dramatization of Keller's life.

Morris' television credits include a 1956 episode of The Man Called X and a 1959 episode of The Thin Man.{{Cite web|url=https://www.fandango.com/people/barboura-morris-476131/biography|title = Barboura Morris Biography}}

= Writing =

In 1974, Morris penned an essay titled "Flight 553: the Watergate Murder" that was included in Steve Weissman's Big Brother and the Holding Company: the world behind Watergate. In the piece, Morris implicated Richard Nixon in the death of Dorothy Hunt in the United Airlines Flight 533 plane crash. Historian David Greenberg characterizes Morris' claims as one of the New Left conspiracy theories surrounding Nixon following Watergate.{{cite book |last1=Greenberg |first1=David |title=Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image |date=2004 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |isbn=0393285278}}

The essay was planned as part of a full book to be called The Watergate Women, written by Morris and edited by Donald Freed.{{cite book |last1=Weissman |first1=Steve |title=Big Brother and the Holding Company: the world behind Watergate. |date=1974 |publisher=Rampart Press |location=Palo Alto |isbn=0878670505 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bigbrotherholdi00weis }}

Personal life

Morris' first marriage was to Monte Hellman, a producer of experimental theater who led the Stumptown company.{{cite book |last1=Weaver |first1=Tom |title=I Was a Monster Movie Maker: Conversations with 22 SF and Horror Filmmakers |date=2010 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0786462650}} The two met when Hellman hired Morris for Stumptown{{cite book |last1=Albright |first1=Brian |title=Wild Beyond Belief: Interviews with Exploitation Filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s |date=2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0786482504 |pages=89}} and were married from 1954 to 1958.{{cite book|last1=McGilligan|first1=Patrick|title=Jack's Life: A Biography of Jack Nicholson|date=1996|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393313789|page=94|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AdQDYqBmmJYC&q=%22Barboura+O%27Neill%22&pg=PA94|accessdate=12 August 2017|language=en}} Following her divorce, she had a brief romantic involvement with Roger Corman during the production of A Bucket of Blood{{cite book |last1=Nasr |first1=Constantine |title=Roger Corman: Interviews |url=https://archive.org/details/rogercormaninter00cons |url-access=limited |date=2011 |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |isbn=978-1617031670 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/rogercormaninter00cons/page/n53 11]}}

In 1965, Morris met playwright Donald Freed at the Los Angeles Art Theater.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/05/03/archives/inquest-its-author-speaks-for-it-author-speaks-for-inquest.html|title = 'Inquest': Its Author Speaks for It|newspaper = The New York Times|date = May 3, 1970|last1 = Berg|first1 = Beatrice}} The couple were married that same year and had one son.{{Citation needed |date=July 2021}} Morris and Freed collaborated as writers aligned with the New Left movement; Morris published under the name Barboura Morris Freed.{{cite book |last1=Weissman |first1=Steve |title=Big Brother and the Holding Company: the world behind Watergate. |date=1974 |publisher=Rampart Press |location=Palo Alto |isbn=0878670505 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/bigbrotherholdi00weis }}

Death

Morris died in Santa Monica, one day after her 43rd birthday. She had been battling cancer, but died from a stroke.{{Citation needed |date=July 2021}} She was buried in Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery.Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14000 Famous Persons by Scott Wilson

Filmography

= Film =

Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes
class="wikitable"
rowspan="4" \|1957	Rock All Night	Syl	rowspan="5" \|
Teenage Doll	Janet
Sorority Girl	Rita Joyce
The Viking Women and the Sea Serpent
rowspan="2" \|1958	Machine-Gun Kelly	Lynn Grayson
Teenage Caveman	Young Tribe Member	Uncredited
rowspan="2" \|1959	A Bucket of Blood	Carla	rowspan="3" \|
The Wasp Woman	Mary Dennison
1961	Atlas	Candia
rowspan="2" \|1963	X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes	Nurse with Young Patient	Uncredited
The Haunted Palace	Mrs. Weeden
1966	The Wild Angels	Mother	rowspan="2" \| Uncredited
rowspan="2" \|1967	The St. Valentine's Day Massacre	Jeanette Landsman
The Trip	Flo
1969	De Sade	Nun	Uncredited
rowspan="2" \|1970	The Dunwich Horror	Mrs. Cole
Helen Keller and Her Teacher	Anne Sullivan	Final film role