A HOLLYWOOD TRAGEDY REVEALED AFTER 60 YEARS!!!
Robert Morris should have been a star. He was producer Bert Leonard's original choice to ride alongside George Maharis in Route 66; however, as the concept for the series evolved, Morris was out and Martin Milner was in. As Maharis and Milner prepared to drive into the annals of television history, Robert Morris relocated from New York to California to boost his career. What initially appeared to be a good move ended in tragedy. Less than a year after moving out west, Robert Morris died under peculiar circumstances at a "health ranch" in southern California at the age of 25.
For the first time ever, the story of Robert Morris is finally being told: From his humble beginnings as Bobby Morawczynski, growing up in Reading, Pennsylvania; to his days at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City; his summer internship at the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, in 1956; his television work in New York, most notably on episodes of Deadline and The Naked City, where he co-starred with George Maharis in a "backdoor pilot" for Route 66; to his final days in California where he met his untimely death.
In his brief lifetime, Robert Morris worked alongside many people who would go on to fame and fortune, beginning with Lenny Moore, the Pro Football Hall of Famer whose career took shape on the field at Reading High School -- Morris was the left halfback to Lenny Moore's right halfback. As a competitive bodybuilder, he shared the stage with Mickey Hargitay (Mr. Universe 1955), Yas Kuzuhara (Mr. USA 1954) and Harry Johnson (Mr. America 1959). At the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he took classes and hung out with the likes of Eileen Brennan, George Coe, Richard Stahl, Hoke Howell and Clint Kimbrough. At the American Shakespeare Festival Theatre, he worked with notable veterans like John Houseman, Norman Lloyd, John Emery, Stanley Bell, and Morris Carnovsky, up-and-comers like Nina Foch, Pernell Roberts, Fritz Weaver and Jonathan Frid, and future entertainment luminaries like Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Lindsay-Hogg and Jerry Stiller. His television work saw him share the screen with Steve McQueen, William Shatner, Ralph Bellamy, George Maharis, Paul Stewart, Vic Morrow, Michael Ansara, Rory Calhoun and Walter Matthau, working under directors like Robert Mulligan (To Kill A Mockingbird) and Stuart Rosenberg (Cool Hand Luke).
Promise Unfulfilled: The Brief Life and Bizarre Death of Actor Robert Morris is the portrait of a man who put his best foot forward to attain the American Dream -- only to have tragedy intervene. Read the story as told by those who knew him -- his friends, family and colleagues, including George Maharis, Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Tony Franke, Barbara Lord Warburton, Pamela Saunders, Susan Quick, Harvey Grossman and Robert Heide.
