Read Morgan
{{short description|American film and television actor (1931–2022)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Read Morgan
| image = Read Morgan in The Deputy (The Hard Decision).jpg
| caption = Morgan in The Deputy, 1961
| birth_name = Read Lawrence Morgan
| birth_date = {{birth date|1931|01|30}}
| birth_place = Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
| death_date = {{death date and age|2022|04|20|1931|01|30}}
| death_place =
| occupation = Film and television actor
| alma mater = University of Kentucky
Northwestern University
| years_active = 1949–1994
| spouse = {{marriage|Elizabeth Oleyar|1963}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ltUkDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA1996|title=Television Western Players, 1960-1975: A Biographical Dictionary|page=310|first=Everett|last=Aaker|publisher=McFarland|date=May 25, 2017|isbn=9781476662503|via=Google Books}}
}}
Read Lawrence Morgan (January 30, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American film and television actor.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Um6CDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT155|title=So You Think You're a Kentucky Wildcats Basketball Fan?: Stars, Stats, Records, and Memories for True Diehards|page=155|first=Tom|last=Wallace|publisher=Sports Publishing|date=October 11, 2016|isbn=9781613219737|via=Google Books}} He was perhaps best known for playing Sergeant Hapgood Tasker in the American western television series The Deputy.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/433009385/|title=Healthy Giant|work=The Boston Globe|location=Boston, Massachusetts|first=Elizabeth|last=Sullivan|date=January 15, 1961|access-date=October 31, 2021|page=175|via=Newspapers.com}} {{Closed access}}
Life and career
Morgan was born in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Kentucky,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MKEfDAAAQBAJ|title=Richard Jaeckel, Hollywood's Man of Character|page=75|first=Gene|last=Freese|publisher=McFarland|date=April 6, 2016|isbn=9781476662107|via=Google Books}} where he played basketball and football. After two years there, he left to study drama at Northwestern University, then served in the United States Air Force for two years.
Morgan began his acting career in the crime drama television series The Big Story in 1949. Later he joined the cast of the western television series The Deputy, playing army officer Sergeant Hapgood Tasker, who was blind in one eye and wore an eye patch. Morgan also appeared in the Broadway play Li'l Abner.
Morgan guest-starred in numerous television programs including Gunsmoke,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pfNACgAAQBAJ&pg=PT51|title=Riverboat: The Evolution of a Television Series, 1959-1961|first1=S. L.|last1=Kotar|first2=J. E.|last2=Gessler|page=51|publisher=BearManor Media|date=December 2009|isbn=9781593935054|via=Google Books}} Wagon Train, The United States Steel Hour, M Squad, How the West Was Won, Laramie, The Outsider, The Twilight Zone (episode "What You Need"),{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_Z1DwAAQBAJ|title=Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination|page=211|first=Nicholas|last=Parisi|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|date=October 24, 2018|isbn=9781496819451|via=Google Books}} State Trooper, and Paradise. He also appeared in films such as Back to the Future, Just Between Friends, The Beach Girls and the Monster, Dillinger, Lightning, the White Stallion, and The New Centurions. He retired in 1994; his last credit was in the film Maverick.
Death
Morgan died on April 20, 2022, at the age of 91.{{cite web |title=In Memoriam, Summer 2022 |url=https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1475555-summer-2022/65? |work=SAG-AFTRA |access-date=August 11, 2022 |pages=62}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.bigbluehistory.net/bb/statistics/Players/Morgan_Read.html|title=Read Morgan|work=Big Blue History|access-date=January 18, 2025}}
Selected filmography
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960) (Season 5 Episode 21: "Hitch Hike") as Police Officer
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960) (Season 5 Episode 25: "The Little Man Who Was There") as Ben McMahon
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1963) (Season 1 Episode 32: "Death of a Cop") as Freddie Arnold
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|0604968}}
- {{tcmdb name}}
- [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/read_morgan/ Rotten Tomatoes profile]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morgan, Read}}
Category:Male actors from Chicago
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:American men's basketball players
Category:University of Kentucky alumni
Category:Northwestern University alumni
Category:Western (genre) television actors
Category:20th-century American people