Harry Morgan, 1915-2011

Harry Morgan in a supporting role in Somehwere in the Night

The death has been announced of actor Harry Morgan at the age of 96. Morgan is probably best remembered to younger people for having played Col. Sherman Potter on the TV series M*A*S*H, although it's been almost 30 years since the show went off the air. Morgan also played Jack Webb's sidekick on the TV police show Dragnet. But before all this, he had quite a substantial career in movies starting in the early 1940s, when he was usually credited as Henry Morgan instead of Harry. He worked at Fox at the start of his career, so a lot of his movies don't show off all that often on TCM, but they either show up from time to time on the Fox Movie Channel, or are available on DVD. One example of the latter is Somewhere in the Night, where Morgan plays a smaller role as an attendant at a bath house, and from which the photo above is taken.

Morgan actually had a broad range in his movie roles. The most recent time I recommended one of his movies, he played a killer, in the film Red Light. Or, I suppose I could mention that he worked the other side of the law in Strange Bargain, in which he plays a police detective. And for something completely different, you could watch him in a western like Yellow Sky.

I don't know that TCM will be pre-empting any of their programming to do a tribute for him, but he is the sort of actor who would merit a night of films sometime in the future, and would of even if he hadn't just died.