Jeff Morrow was a good actor that appeared in a lot of bad movies from the 1950's, like The Giant Claw, and Kronos, as well as a slew of B-Westerns like Copper Sky. With credits like those, it's hard to believe that his career started with a small role in a very big budget feature - the Richard Burton epic, The Robe.
An actor has to work, though, and steady work first came to Jeff Morrow in the form of films like This Island Earth, which he is probably best known for. And while the public might not have noticed, television did, as he was chosen to play the leading role in the short-lived Western series Union Pacific, which the writing sadly just couldn't compete with so many of the other top westerns that were currently airing.
In the 1960's he found work as a guest star in many popular television series of the time and it's those performances that showcased his true talent as an actor. From The Twilight Zone to Bonanza and from Perry Mason to the The Rifleman, as well as many, many more, Jeff Morrow gave realistic portrayals that made the audience care and notice.
In watching his work, one sees an actor that was almost always better than the material given. This is nothing new in Hollywood and certainly no stranger to this blog, making Jeff Morrow my pick a the day for being Not Very Famous...but should be.
An actor has to work, though, and steady work first came to Jeff Morrow in the form of films like This Island Earth, which he is probably best known for. And while the public might not have noticed, television did, as he was chosen to play the leading role in the short-lived Western series Union Pacific, which the writing sadly just couldn't compete with so many of the other top westerns that were currently airing.
In the 1960's he found work as a guest star in many popular television series of the time and it's those performances that showcased his true talent as an actor. From The Twilight Zone to Bonanza and from Perry Mason to the The Rifleman, as well as many, many more, Jeff Morrow gave realistic portrayals that made the audience care and notice.
In watching his work, one sees an actor that was almost always better than the material given. This is nothing new in Hollywood and certainly no stranger to this blog, making Jeff Morrow my pick a the day for being Not Very Famous...but should be.
I've come to appreciate Jeff Morrow's acting fairly late, but better late than never. His movie debut was fairly late, too. He was in his early forties when he began to appear in films, became a leading man fairly quickly, but never a star name. For a brief period he seemed on a roll, but the clock was ticking and Morrow's sincere-heroic style of acting was going out of fashion. His TV work is solid, but he didn't seem to work that much on the small screen after the Fifties. Morrow's manner is rather sensitive for such a hunky guy, and he's shown a gift for on-screen bonding and empathy with other players. My favorite Morrow movie performance: his Exeter in This Island Earth.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Jeff Morrow did a lot of Western films in the 1950s that I don't know about. And I've probably seen at least four of his films including "Copper Sky". I wonder when he died because I'm pretty sure he's no longer with us. He was indeed a great actor.
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