Robert Morse

Robert Morse, who starred in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying as a young actor and, decades later, returned to the corporate world with TV's ...

You may click on “Your Choices” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. If you click “Agree and Continue” below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR’s sites. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic.

Morse played Bert Cooper on "Mad Men," garnering several Emmy nominations, and originated the lead in the Tony-winning musical "How to Succeed in Business ...

Morse performed guest spots and voice acting on dozens of series, from "Fantasy Island" to "American Crime Story: The People v. He reprised the role in the 1967 film adaptation. "I find the center of the stage, I find the center of me, and I feel like I belong.

Robert Morse won his first Tony in 1962 for the musical comedy “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,” also won an Emmy in 1993 for a one-man ...

Morse did not return to Broadway until he appeared in “Tru” in 1989-90, and he did not appear on the Rialto again after that. In 1976, he appeared in the musical “So Long, 174th Street,” whose source material was a book by Carl Reiner. He also studied with Lee Strasberg. He made his stage debut in 1949 production of “Our Town” in New Hampshire. In 2010, he shared the SAG Award that “Mad Men” won for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series. He earned his first Emmy nomination for his work on the series. The enormous hit ran for more than 1,400 performances and was adapted for the big screen in a 1967 film in which Morse reprised his starring role of J. Pierpont Finch.

Before he played Bert Cooper on the AMC drama, he had a career-defining role in the musical 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.'.

[lyrics from the How to Succeed song “A Secretary Is Not a Toy”].’ And everybody looked at me like I was crazy, because they’re all so damned young! He was a little bit strange and a little bit outrageous. It was all very positive, for the most part. The boyish Morse also starred in several light-hearted movie comedies of the 1960s. John Kennedy came to see me in How to Succeed and gave me a signed picture; I used to hang out in Bobby Kennedy’s place down in Virginia. They were wonderful days, the sun was out, our sleeves were rolled up. “I saw how the scene fit into the whole picture and thought: ‘Wow. This gives things a lot of perspective here. The best things in life are free. (Also among the winners: director Abe Burrows and actor Charles Nelson Reilly.) “A huge talent and a beautiful spirit. “He had this incredible sense of comedy and this wonderful lightness and fluidity. Let’s do it.’ We rehearsed for a few days and then just filmed it over the course of a day or so. Sending love to his son Charlie & daughter Allyn. Had so much fun hanging with Bobby over the years — filming People v OJ & hosting so many screenings (How To Succeed, Loved One, That’s Life).”

Robert Morse, the Tony-winning star of 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying' who enjoyed a late-career Act 2 in AMC's Mad Men, has died.

As for the Broadway stage, Morse would never abandon it. In one of the series’ most memorable exits, Cooper died peacefully after watching the 1969 moon landing and uttering a final, “Bravo.” Often shoeless, occasionally dressed in a kimono, Morse’s Cooper was a wealthy, past-his-prime ad man with nothing left to prove. Morse’s television career, meanwhile, remained both busy and steady. “A huge talent and a beautiful spirit. Sending love to his son Charlie & daughter Allyn. Had so much fun hanging with Bobby over the years – filming People v OJ & hosting so many screenings (How To Succeed, Loved One, That’s Life).”

The Emmy and Tony winner was particularly known for his performances in AMC's prestige drama and 'How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.'

Morse was born on May 18, 1931 in Newton, MA. He always wanted to be an actor. But it was onstage that he made his biggest impressions. As an actor, Morse was a bundle of energy, a bravura song and dance man and deft at comedy.

FILE - Robert Morse appears at the live read and series finale of "Mad Men" held in Los Angeles on May 17, 2015. Morse, who won a Tony Award as a ...

“I don’t think in terms of whether a picture will help or hinder my career,” Morse told the Los Angeles Times when the film was in production. Still, he said of his career, “I didn’t think it was going to end or not end. “Say, Darling” was a comedy about a young writer’s experience as his novel is turned into a Broadway show. “But there’s a desperate side of Capote, too, and Morse rises to the pain.” It was the other 22 hours I had a problem with.” I never got a chance to be in a play or picture where I played a father, or had a family, or where I could feel or show something. He has an innate sense of comedy and a funny face to go with it.” “As played with unfaltering bravura and wit by Robert Morse, he is a rumpled, dimpled angel with a streak of Lucifer.” (Meanwhile, a 1995 Broadway revival of “How to Succeed...” brought another Tony for its Finch, Matthew Broderick.) More recently, he played the autocratic and eccentric leader of an advertising agency in “Mad Men,” AMC’s hit drama that debuted in 2007. “I consider myself an actor — shyly,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1964. The boyishly handsome Morse first made his name on Broadway in the 1950s, and landed some roles in Hollywood comedies in the 1960s.

FILE - Robert Morse appears at the live read and series finale of "Mad Men" held in Los Angeles on May 17, 2015. Morse, who won a Tony Award as a ...

“I don’t think in terms of whether a picture will help or hinder my career,” Morse told the Los Angeles Times when the film was in production. Still, he said of his career, “I didn’t think it was going to end or not end. “Say, Darling” was a comedy about a young writer’s experience as his novel is turned into a Broadway show. “But there’s a desperate side of Capote, too, and Morse rises to the pain.” It was the other 22 hours I had a problem with.” I never got a chance to be in a play or picture where I played a father, or had a family, or where I could feel or show something. He has an innate sense of comedy and a funny face to go with it.” “As played with unfaltering bravura and wit by Robert Morse, he is a rumpled, dimpled angel with a streak of Lucifer.” (Meanwhile, a 1995 Broadway revival of “How to Succeed...” brought another Tony for its Finch, Matthew Broderick.) More recently, he played the autocratic and eccentric leader of an advertising agency in “Mad Men,” AMC’s hit drama that debuted in 2007. “I consider myself an actor — shyly,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1964. The boyishly handsome Morse first made his name on Broadway in the 1950s, and landed some roles in Hollywood comedies in the 1960s.