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 Woefully misused while in her prime screen years at Paramount during the late '30s and '40s, Patricia Morison, lovely and exotic with Rapunzel-like long, dark hair, nevertheless became a star in her own right -- as a supremely talented diva on the singing stage.Born on March 19, 1915, in New York City, her father, William Morison, was a playwright and occasional actor who billed himself under the name Norman Rainey. Patricia's mother worked for British Intelligence during WWI. Graduating from Washington Irving High School in New York, Patricia studied at the Art Students League and proceeded to take acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse while also studying dance with the renowned Martha Graham. She earned a steady check at the time as a dress shop designer.At age 19 Patricia made her Broadway debut in the short-lived play "Growing Pains" and proceeded to understudy the legendary Helen Hayes in her classic role of "Victoria Regina". She never went on. In 1938, shortly after opening in the musical "The Two Bouquets" opposite musical star Alfred Drake, Paramount talent scouts, looking for exotic, dark-haired glamour types then to rein in their star commodity, Dorothy Lamour, scoped Patricia out and tested her. The blue-eyed beauty who indeed resembled Lamour was signed and made her film debut the following year, showing bright promise in the "B" film Persons in Hiding (1939).Patricia's stock did not improve, however, despite such promise, and she was relegated to such second-string westerns as I'm from Missouri (1939), Rangers of Fortune (1940), Romance of the Rio Grande (1940), and The Round Up (1941). When things didn't improve with such stilted fare as Night in New Orleans (1942), Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942), and Are Husbands Necessary? (1942), she left Paramount. She freelanced in 'other woman' roles which included the Tracy/Hepburn vehicle Without Love (1945) and The Fallen Sparrow (1943), and played Empress Eugenie in The Song of Bernadette (1943), but the focus was seldom on her. Overlooked when cast in top leads at 'poverty row' programmers, her best chance at film stardom came as Victor Mature's despairing wife who takes her own life (which was to have been shown on screen) in Kiss of Death (1947), but her juicy role was excised from the film by producers (or, more likely, the Breen Commission) who felt audiences weren't ready for such shocking displays.During the war years, Patricia had trained her voice and performed in USO tours. Cole Porter heard her sing in Hollywood one evening and decided she had the right tenacity, feistiness and vocal expertise to play the female lead in his new show. In 1948, over the objections of both the producer and director, stardom was clenched in the form of Porter's classic musical-within-a-musical "Kiss Me Kate." As the sweeping, vixenish Lilli Vanessi, a severe-looking stage diva whose own volatile personality coincided with that of her onstage role (Kate from "The Taming of the Shrew"), Patricia found THE role of her career, giving over 1,000 performances in all. Playing again alongside her former Broadway co-star Alfred Drake, Patricia basked in the multitude of glowing reviews, and such songs as "I Hate Men," "Wunderbar" and "So In Love" rightfully became signature songs. Following this triumph, film work never became a top priority again.Patricia continued on successfully in the London version of "Kate" and went on to conquer other classic leads in the musicals "The King and I," "Kismet," "The Merry Widow," "Song of Norway" and Pal Joey," among others. Her last movie role was a cameo part as writer George Sand in the mildly received biopic Song Without End (1960) starring Dirk Bogarde as composer Franz Liszt.On TV Patricia recreated her Kate role with Mr. Drake and made a few scattered but lively appearances over the years. One of her later guest shots was on a 1989 episode of "Cheers" and a 1991 episode of "Gabriel's Fire." In later years the never-married actress devoted herself to painting (an early passion) and enjoyed many showings in the Los Angeles area. The lovely lady with the trademark long hair died in L.A. at the age of 103, on May 20, 2018.
Bio:
Woefully misused while in her prime screen years at Paramount during the late '30s and '40s, Patricia Morison, lovely and exotic with Rapunzel-like long, dark hair, nevertheless became a star in her own right -- as a supremely talented diva on the singing stage.Born on March 19, 1915, in New York City, her father, William Morison, was a playwright and occasional actor who billed himself under the name Norman Rainey. Patricia's mother worked for British Intelligence during WWI. Graduating from Washington Irving High School in New York, Patricia studied at the Art Students League and proceeded to take acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse while also studying dance with the renowned Martha Graham. She earned a steady check at the time as a dress shop designer.At age 19 Patricia made her Broadway debut in the short-lived play "Growing Pains" and proceeded to understudy the legendary Helen Hayes in her classic role of "Victoria Regina". She never went on. In 1938, shortly after opening in the musical "The Two Bouquets" opposite musical star Alfred Drake, Paramount talent scouts, looking for exotic, dark-haired glamour types then to rein in their star commodity, Dorothy Lamour, scoped Patricia out and tested her. The blue-eyed beauty who indeed resembled Lamour was signed and made her film debut the following year, showing bright promise in the "B" film Persons in Hiding (1939).Patricia's stock did not improve, however, despite such promise, and she was relegated to such second-string westerns as I'm from Missouri (1939), Rangers of Fortune (1940), Romance of the Rio Grande (1940), and The Round Up (1941). When things didn't improve with such stilted fare as Night in New Orleans (1942), Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942), and Are Husbands Necessary? (1942), she left Paramount. She freelanced in 'other woman' roles which included the Tracy/Hepburn vehicle Without Love (1945) and The Fallen Sparrow (1943), and played Empress Eugenie in The Song of Bernadette (1943), but the focus was seldom on her. Overlooked when cast in top leads at 'poverty row' programmers, her best chance at film stardom came as Victor Mature's despairing wife who takes her own life (which was to have been shown on screen) in Kiss of Death (1947), but her juicy role was excised from the film by producers (or, more likely, the Breen Commission) who felt audiences weren't ready for such shocking displays.During the war years, Patricia had trained her voice and performed in USO tours. Cole Porter heard her sing in Hollywood one evening and decided she had the right tenacity, feistiness and vocal expertise to play the female lead in his new show. In 1948, over the objections of both the producer and director, stardom was clenched in the form of Porter's classic musical-within-a-musical "Kiss Me Kate." As the sweeping, vixenish Lilli Vanessi, a severe-looking stage diva whose own volatile personality coincided with that of her onstage role (Kate from "The Taming of the Shrew"), Patricia found THE role of her career, giving over 1,000 performances in all. Playing again alongside her former Broadway co-star Alfred Drake, Patricia basked in the multitude of glowing reviews, and such songs as "I Hate Men," "Wunderbar" and "So In Love" rightfully became signature songs. Following this triumph, film work never became a top priority again.Patricia continued on successfully in the London version of "Kate" and went on to conquer other classic leads in the musicals "The King and I," "Kismet," "The Merry Widow," "Song of Norway" and Pal Joey," among others. Her last movie role was a cameo part as writer George Sand in the mildly received biopic Song Without End (1960) starring Dirk Bogarde as composer Franz Liszt.On TV Patricia recreated her Kate role with Mr. Drake and made a few scattered but lively appearances over the years. One of her later guest shots was on a 1989 episode of "Cheers" and a 1991 episode of "Gabriel's Fire." In later years the never-married actress devoted herself to painting (an early passion) and enjoyed many showings in the Los Angeles area. The lovely lady with the trademark long hair died in L.A. at the age of 103, on May 20, 2018.
Tivia:
She has the distinction of being the last villain encountered by Sherlock Holmes in the classic Universal series.Was the actress with the longest hair in Hollywood (39 inches long). Universal pushed her as a rival to Dorothy Lamour when she changed her hairstyle to a middle parting.Had a full mezzo-soprano vocal range.A longtime Los Angeles resident, she lived in Miracle Mile's Park La Brea apartments for more than 50 years.Served as Helen Hayes' understudy in the 1936 Broadway production of "Victoria Regina". She was never put on during the run, even when Hayes became ill. The theatre would simply close the show until the legendary star recovered.Had a very promising role in the classic Victor Mature/Richard Widmark crime thriller Kiss of Death (1947) as Mature's Italian wife who is raped and later commits suicide by putting her head in the kitchen gas oven. The censors cut her part out completely because they refused to allow a rape or suicide to be shown. Patricia's name still appears on the credits of the film.Paramount promoted her with the line "Lamour plus Lamarr equals LaMorison.".Upon her death, she was cremated by The Neptune Society and her ashes were scattered at sea.Major supporter of gay rights.When Song Without End (1960) director George Cukor thought Morison's voice as George Sand was too feminine, he had it re-dubbed with another actress.She was a lifelong liberal Democrat.In her nineties was still able to perform in the same key as when she made her name in Kiss Me, Kate.Passing away shortly before Kirk Douglas and Olivia de Havilland, Morison was one of the last survivors of the golden age of Hollywood.Never married and childless, she lived in the Park La Brea apartment complex in Los Angeles from 1961 onwards.It was only by chance that she changed direction and became a singer. Her brother was a lounge singer at Scheherazade, a nightclub where doormen were dressed as Cossacks and a Russian orchestra played. One New Year's Eve the pianist heard her sing a Russian ballad and told her: "Patrishinka, I vould arrange to study woice!" He became her teacher and she began to contemplate singing as a career.Patricia Morison herself remarked, "I really had two careers, one in film and one in the theater. I was lucky.".She was often cast as the femme fatale or "other woman". It was only when she returned to the Broadway stage that she achieved her greatest success as the lead in the original production of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate and subsequently in The King and I.In December 2012, at age 97, she appeared on stage in an evening entitled Ladies of an Indeterminate Age at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. Her co-stars included Charlotte Rae and Anne Jeffreys.On November 18, 1999, Morison attended the opening night performance of the successful Kiss Me, Kate Broadway revival, the first such revival in New York, starring Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie (in the role Morison originated in 1948). At the time of her death in May 2018, Morison was one of the very few living cast members, and the only surviving featured player from that original production.In 1948, Morison again abandoned her film career and returned to the stage, and achieved her greatest success. Cole Porter had heard her sing while in Hollywood and decided that she had the vocal expertise and feistiness to play the female lead in his new show, Kiss Me, Kate. Morison went on to major Broadway stardom when she created the role of Lilli Vanessi, the imperious stage diva whose own volatile personality coincided with that of her onstage role (Kate from The Taming of the Shrew). Kiss Me, Kate featured such songs as "I Hate Men," "Wunderbar", and "So in Love", reuniting Morison with her former Broadway co-star Alfred Drake. The play ran on Broadway from December 30, 1948 until July 28, 1951, for a total of 1,077 performances. Morison also played in the London production of Kiss Me, Kate, which ran for 400 performances.Her mother, Selena Morison (n��e Fraser), worked for British Intelligence during World War I.She played the female antagonist in Tarzan and the Huntress (1947), the penultimate film starring Johnny Weissmuller as Edgar Rice Burroughs' title character.She was reportedly dropped from The Glass Key (1942) due to her towering over her co-star Alan Ladd.Returning to films once again, Morison continued to be cast in supporting roles, all too often as femme fatales or unsympathetic "other women", including the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn vehicle, Without Love (1945), and the Deanna Durbin comedy-mystery Lady on a Train (1945).After graduating from Washington Irving High School in New York, Morison studied at the Arts Students League while taking acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse.In February 1954, Morison took over the role of Anna Leonowens in the Rodgers and Hammerstein production of The King and I, which co-starred Yul Brynner in his star-making role as the King of Siam. The musical premiered in 1951, originally with Gertrude Lawrence as Leonowens. Lawrence was subsequently replaced by Celeste Holm, Constance Carpenter, Annamary Dickey, and finally Morison, who appeared in The King and I until its Broadway closing on March 20, 1954, and then continued with the production on the national tour, which included a stop at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera (from May 5, 1954).Morison returned to acting in the cinema as a freelance performer. One of her better roles-albeit a small supporting one-was that of Empress Eug��nie in The Song of Bernadette (1943) starring Jennifer Jones.In 1944, Morison briefly abandoned her film work and returned to the Broadway stage. In April, she opened at the Adelphi Theatre in the musical comedy, Allah Be Praised!. The play, however, was unsuccessful and closed after a very brief run of only 20 performances.In later years Morison devoted herself to painting-one of her early passions-and had several showings in and around Los Angeles.In 1971 she and Yul Brynner performed "Shall We Dance" from The King and I on a broadcast of the Tony Awards.Morison returned in the 40's to acting in the cinema as a freelance performer.In November 1978 she again played the leading role in Kiss Me, Kate at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in England.She appeared in The Fallen Sparrow (1943) with John Garfield and Maureen O'Hara, and Calling Dr. Death (1945), one of the "Inner Sanctum" films, starring Lon Chaney Jr.In July 1985, Morison traveled to New Zealand to star in the role of Alika in the Michael Edgley revival of Sir Robert Helpmann & her friend Eaton Magoon Jr's Hawaiian musical Aloha at His Majesty's Theatre, Auckland, directed by Joe Layton and musically directed by Derek Williams,[13] who had also orchestrated and conducted the world premi��re at Hamilton Founders Theatre in 1981.She also studied dance under Martha Graham. During this time she was employed as a dress shop designer at Russeks department store.In 1938, Morison appeared in the musical The Two Bouquets, which ran for only 55 performances. Among the other cast members was Alfred Drake, who, years later, would star opposite Morison in the Broadway hit Kiss Me, Kate.By 1942, the United States had become involved in World War II and, as a result, Morison became one of many celebrities who entertained American troops and their allies. In November of that year she joined Al Jolson, Merle Oberon, Allen Jenkins, and Frank McHugh on a USO Tour in Great Britain.She had also taken up painting and was spending weekends working on a portrait of Lillie Messinger, a story consultant at MGM, who invited her to dinner with the studio's production chief, Louis B Mayer. Morison began accompanying her to Mayer's home every Sunday for dinner followed by a film. One day Messinger told Morison that Mayer was in love with her and was prepared to give her $100,000 the day they became engaged - as well as the jewellery he had shown her. Morison said she was not in love with him and would feel insulted by such a bargain.Her father, William, was a playwright from Belfast who acted under the name Norman Rainey. Her Liverpudlian mother, Selena (n��e Fraser), was of Irish extraction and worked for British intelligence in the First World War.Cole Porter had auditioned her for Kiss me, Kate in a large theatre to be sure of her projection and had convinced his producers to cast her. She played Lilli Vanessi, the diva cast as Kate in The Taming of the Shrew. Opposite her was Alfred Drake. Morison's mezzosoprano voice was perfect for the songs Wunderbar and I Hate Men.Patricia attended Washington Irving High School then studied with the Arts Students League. She made her debut on Broadway in 1933 in a shortlived play called Growing Pains.In 1948 Patricia Morison was about to leave Hollywood for New York to start rehearsing the lead role in the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate. It was something of a gamble, since Porter had not had a hit show for years. On the eve of her departure she received an offer of marriage from one of the most powerful moguls in Hollywood, Louis B Mayer, which would have made her a wealthy woman. She rejected his proposal - a wise move, as it turned out.She gave 1,007 performances, then 400 more in Jack Hylton's London production at the Coliseum of "Kiss me, Kate". In 1964, playing opposite Howard Keel, she was in the television adaptation that helped to launch BBC2, one night later than scheduled because of a power cut.She appeared in the made-for-TV movie Mirrors (1985) and had a guest role in 1989 on the popular sitcom Cheers.In March 2014, at age 99, she appeared onstage for Broadway Backwards 9, a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. She sang "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" from Kiss Me, Kate.She had also taken up painting and was spending weekends working on a portrait of Lillie Messinger, a story consultant at MGM, who invited her to dinner with the studio's production chief, Louis B Mayer. Morison began accompanying her to Mayer's home every Sunday for dinner followed by a film.Among her non-musical television performances were a recurring role on the detective series The Cases of Eddie Drake (1952) co-starring Don Haggerty on the DuMont Television Network and a guest appearance with Vincent Price on Have Gun - Will Travel (1958) starring Richard Boone.Morison became immersed in the social life of Hollywood's British colony, with dinners at the homes of Basil Rathbone and Ronald Colman and tennis at the Chaplins' house, where Charlie never stopped performing. She enjoyed riding in Bel-Air until she was thrown off her horse and the studio ordered her to stop. She was also a keen walker, which was unheard of in Beverly Hills. She avoided the Hollywood dating scene traps by taking her brother as an escort to nightclubs and parties.She did a couple of screen tests and was picked up by Paramount. Although she had never travelled farther west than Detroit, she went to Hollywood on the Super Chief - "the train of the stars" - with her mother and they rented a house in Beverly Hills.She performed in still more productions of Kiss, Me Kate at the Seattle Opera House (opening in April 1965) and the New York City Center (opening May 12, 1965). |
| Name: |
Patricia Morison |
Type: |
Actress,Soundtrack (IMDB) |
| Area: |
All World |
Platform: |
IMDB |
| Category: |
|
Business scope: |
Actress,Soundtrack |
| Products for sale: |
Actress,Soundtrack |
| Model rank: |
10267 |
| Last update: |
2024-07-01 04:20:33 |
| Biography: |
Woefully misused while in her prime screen years at Paramount during the late \'30s and \'40s, Patricia Morison, lovely and exotic with Rapunzel-like long, dark hair, nevertheless became a star in her own right -- as a supremely talented diva on the |
| Trivia: |
She has the distinction of being the last villain encountered by Sherlock Holmes in the classic Universal series.Was the actress with the longest hair in Hollywood (39 inches long). Universal pushed her as a rival to Dorothy Lamour when she changed her hairstyle to a middle parting.Had a full mezzo-soprano vocal range.A longtime Los Angeles resident, she lived in Miracle Mile's Park La Brea apartments for more than 50 years.Served as Helen Hayes' understudy in the 1936 Broadway production of "Victoria Regina". She was never put on during the run, even when Hayes became ill. The theatre would simply close the show until the legendary star recovered.Had a very promising role in the classic Victor Mature/Richard Widmark crime thriller Kiss of Death (1947) as Mature's Italian wife who is raped and later commits suicide by putting her head in the kitchen gas oven. The censors cut her part out completely because they refused to allow a rape or suicide to be shown. Patricia's name still appears on the credits of the film.Paramount promoted her with the line "Lamour plus Lamarr equals LaMorison.".Upon her death, she was cremated by The Neptune Society and her ashes were scattered at sea.Major supporter of gay rights.When Song Without End (1960) director George Cukor thought Morison's voice as George Sand was too feminine, he had it re-dubbed with another actress.She was a lifelong liberal Democrat.In her nineties was still able to perform in the same key as when she made her name in Kiss Me, Kate.Passing away shortly before Kirk Douglas and Olivia de Havilland, Morison was one of the last survivors of the golden age of Hollywood.Never married and childless, she lived in the Park La Brea apartment complex in Los Angeles from 1961 onwards.It was only by chance that she changed direction and became a singer. Her brother was a lounge singer at Scheherazade, a nightclub where doormen were dressed as Cossacks and a Russian orchestra played. One New Year's Eve the pianist heard her sing a Russian ballad and told her: "Patrishinka, I vould arrange to study woice!" He became her teacher and she began to contemplate singing as a career.Patricia Morison herself remarked, "I really had two careers, one in film and one in the theater. I was lucky.".She was often cast as the femme fatale or "other woman". It was only when she returned to the Broadway stage that she achieved her greatest success as the lead in the original production of Cole Porter's Kiss Me, Kate and subsequently in The King and I.In December 2012, at age 97, she appeared on stage in an evening entitled Ladies of an Indeterminate Age at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. Her co-stars included Charlotte Rae and Anne Jeffreys.On November 18, 1999, Morison attended the opening night performance of the successful Kiss Me, Kate Broadway revival, the first such revival in New York, starring Brian Stokes Mitchell and Marin Mazzie (in the role Morison originated in 1948). At the time of her death in May 2018, Morison was one of the very few living cast members, and the only surviving featured player from that original production.In 1948, Morison again abandoned her film career and returned to the stage, and achieved her greatest success. Cole Porter had heard her sing while in Hollywood and decided that she had the vocal expertise and feistiness to play the female lead in his new show, Kiss Me, Kate. Morison went on to major Broadway stardom when she created the role of Lilli Vanessi, the imperious stage diva whose own volatile personality coincided with that of her onstage role (Kate from The Taming of the Shrew). Kiss Me, Kate featured such songs as "I Hate Men," "Wunderbar", and "So in Love", reuniting Morison with her former Broadway co-star Alfred Drake. The play ran on Broadway from December 30, 1948 until July 28, 1951, for a total of 1,077 performances. Morison also played in the London production of Kiss Me, Kate, which ran for 400 performances.Her mother, Selena Morison (n��e Fraser), worked for British Intelligence during World War I.She played the female antagonist in Tarzan and the Huntress (1947), the penultimate film starring Johnny Weissmuller as Edgar Rice Burroughs' title character.She was reportedly dropped from The Glass Key (1942) due to her towering over her co-star Alan Ladd.Returning to films once again, Morison continued to be cast in supporting roles, all too often as femme fatales or unsympathetic "other women", including the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn vehicle, Without Love (1945), and the Deanna Durbin comedy-mystery Lady on a Train (1945).After graduating from Washington Irving High School in New York, Morison studied at the Arts Students League while taking acting classes at the Neighborhood Playhouse.In February 1954, Morison took over the role of Anna Leonowens in the Rodgers and Hammerstein production of The King and I, which co-starred Yul Brynner in his star-making role as the King of Siam. The musical premiered in 1951, originally with Gertrude Lawrence as Leonowens. Lawrence was subsequently replaced by Celeste Holm, Constance Carpenter, Annamary Dickey, and finally Morison, who appeared in The King and I until its Broadway closing on March 20, 1954, and then continued with the production on the national tour, which included a stop at the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera (from May 5, 1954).Morison returned to acting in the cinema as a freelance performer. One of her better roles-albeit a small supporting one-was that of Empress Eug��nie in The Song of Bernadette (1943) starring Jennifer Jones.In 1944, Morison briefly abandoned her film work and returned to the Broadway stage. In April, she opened at the Adelphi Theatre in the musical comedy, Allah Be Praised!. The play, however, was unsuccessful and closed after a very brief run of only 20 performances.In later years Morison devoted herself to painting-one of her early passions-and had several showings in and around Los Angeles.In 1971 she and Yul Brynner performed "Shall We Dance" from The King and I on a broadcast of the Tony Awards.Morison returned in the 40's to acting in the cinema as a freelance performer.In November 1978 she again played the leading role in Kiss Me, Kate at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in England.She appeared in The Fallen Sparrow (1943) with John Garfield and Maureen O'Hara, and Calling Dr. Death (1945), one of the "Inner Sanctum" films, starring Lon Chaney Jr.In July 1985, Morison traveled to New Zealand to star in the role of Alika in the Michael Edgley revival of Sir Robert Helpmann & her friend Eaton Magoon Jr's Hawaiian musical Aloha at His Majesty's Theatre, Auckland, directed by Joe Layton and musically directed by Derek Williams,[13] who had also orchestrated and conducted the world premi��re at Hamilton Founders Theatre in 1981.She also studied dance under Martha Graham. During this time she was employed as a dress shop designer at Russeks department store.In 1938, Morison appeared in the musical The Two Bouquets, which ran for only 55 performances. Among the other cast members was Alfred Drake, who, years later, would star opposite Morison in the Broadway hit Kiss Me, Kate.By 1942, the United States had become involved in World War II and, as a result, Morison became one of many celebrities who entertained American troops and their allies. In November of that year she joined Al Jolson, Merle Oberon, Allen Jenkins, and Frank McHugh on a USO Tour in Great Britain.She had also taken up painting and was spending weekends working on a portrait of Lillie Messinger, a story consultant at MGM, who invited her to dinner with the studio's production chief, Louis B Mayer. Morison began accompanying her to Mayer's home every Sunday for dinner followed by a film. One day Messinger told Morison that Mayer was in love with her and was prepared to give her $100,000 the day they became engaged - as well as the jewellery he had shown her. Morison said she was not in love with him and would feel insulted by such a bargain.Her father, William, was a playwright from Belfast who acted under the name Norman Rainey. Her Liverpudlian mother, Selena (n��e Fraser), was of Irish extraction and worked for British intelligence in the First World War.Cole Porter had auditioned her for Kiss me, Kate in a large theatre to be sure of her projection and had convinced his producers to cast her. She played Lilli Vanessi, the diva cast as Kate in The Taming of the Shrew. Opposite her was Alfred Drake. Morison's mezzosoprano voice was perfect for the songs Wunderbar and I Hate Men.Patricia attended Washington Irving High School then studied with the Arts Students League. She made her debut on Broadway in 1933 in a shortlived play called Growing Pains.In 1948 Patricia Morison was about to leave Hollywood for New York to start rehearsing the lead role in the Cole Porter musical Kiss Me, Kate. It was something of a gamble, since Porter had not had a hit show for years. On the eve of her departure she received an offer of marriage from one of the most powerful moguls in Hollywood, Louis B Mayer, which would have made her a wealthy woman. She rejected his proposal - a wise move, as it turned out.She gave 1,007 performances, then 400 more in Jack Hylton's London production at the Coliseum of "Kiss me, Kate". In 1964, playing opposite Howard Keel, she was in the television adaptation that helped to launch BBC2, one night later than scheduled because of a power cut.She appeared in the made-for-TV movie Mirrors (1985) and had a guest role in 1989 on the popular sitcom Cheers.In March 2014, at age 99, she appeared onstage for Broadway Backwards 9, a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. She sang "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" from Kiss Me, Kate.She had also taken up painting and was spending weekends working on a portrait of Lillie Messinger, a story consultant at MGM, who invited her to dinner with the studio's production chief, Louis B Mayer. Morison began accompanying her to Mayer's home every Sunday for dinner followed by a film.Among her non-musical television performances were a recurring role on the detective series The Cases of Eddie Drake (1952) co-starring Don Haggerty on the DuMont Television Network and a guest appearance with Vincent Price on Have Gun - Will Travel (1958) starring Richard Boone.Morison became immersed in the social life of Hollywood's British colony, with dinners at the homes of Basil Rathbone and Ronald Colman and tennis at the Chaplins' house, where Charlie never stopped performing. She enjoyed riding in Bel-Air until she was thrown off her horse and the studio ordered her to stop. She was also a keen walker, which was unheard of in Beverly Hills. She avoided the Hollywood dating scene traps by taking her brother as an escort to nightclubs and parties.She did a couple of screen tests and was picked up by Paramount. Although she had never travelled farther west than Detroit, she went to Hollywood on the Super Chief - "the train of the stars" - with her mother and they rented a house in Beverly Hills.She performed in still more productions of Kiss, Me Kate at the Seattle Opera House (opening in April 1965) and the New York City Center (opening May 12, 1965). |
| Trademarks: |
Her long hair |
| Quotes: |
I used to think every night before I went on stage, a lot of people think of the audience as one mass, but it's not -- it's all individual people. And that's why I love the theatere... And I always feel that if in some way you can touch somebody, either touch them emotionally, or if it's a young person who wants to be an actor, touch them so he or she, too, wants to be an actor...it's so worthwhile. I've enjoyed everything I've done in life.
<br />
<hr>
I was fitted for costumes in The Glass Key (1942) with Alan Ladd when I was told by the studio boss, Buddy G. DeSylva, that [the much shorter] Veronica Lake would do the part. He said I could stick around and play heavies. I said no! I over-ate my way out of the Paramount contract. |
| Job title: |
Actress,Soundtrack |
| Others works: |
Patricia Morison played the part of "Lilli Vanessi" in the original Broadway cast of Cole Porter's "Kiss Me Kate".
The last woman to play "Anna Leonowens" in the original Broadway production of "The King and I" |
| Parents: |
Norman Rainey
Selena Morison |
|
