Dennis Morgan (born Earl Stanley Morner; December 20, 1908 – September 7, 1994) was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonymRichard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame.
According to one obituary, he was "a twinkly-eyed handsome charmer with a shy smile and a pleasant tenor voice in carefree and inconsequential Warner Bros musicals of the forties, accompanied by Jack Carson."[1] Another said, "for all his undoubted star potential, Morgan was perhaps cast once too often as the likeable, clean-cut, easy-going but essentially uncharismatic young man who typically loses his girl to someone more sexually magnetic."[2]David Shipman said he "was comfortable, good-looking, well-mannered: the antithesis of the gritty Bogart."[3]
Life and career
Early life
Morgan was born in the village of Prentice in Price County, in northern Wisconsin, the son of Grace J. (née Vandusen) and Frank Edward Morner.[4] He was of Swedish descent on his father's side.[5]
He enrolled at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, as a member of the 1930 graduating class. He was awarded the Carroll College Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1983.[6]
Early career
He began his career as a radio announcer in Milwaukee and went on to broadcast Green Bay Packers football games. He became a radio singer in Chicago.[7]
Stanley Morner at MGM
After relocating to Los Angeles, Morgan began appearing in films. He signed a contract with MGM as "Stanley Morner".[8]
Dennis Morgan and his wife Lillian Vedder at Ciro's, 1946
He went over to Warner Bros. who billed him as "Dennis Morgan". According to Shipman the studio "put him on the assembly-line with Wayne Morris, Arthur Kennedy, Jeffrey Lynn, Eddie Albert and Ronald Reagan – likeable young lugs squiring the heroine till Bogart, Cagney or Flynn came crashing down to sweep her up."[3]
Morgan was teamed with fellow Wisconsinite Jack Carson in One More Tomorrow (1946). Warners liked them as a combination, seeing them as similar to Bing Crosby and Bob Hope at Paramount. In the words of Shipman, the films would feature "Morgan as the easy-going singer who always got the girl and Carson as the loud-mouthed but cowardly braggard-comic who was given the air. No one thought they were Hope and Crosby, least of all themselves."[3] They were reunited in Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946) and The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946).[citation needed]
He appeared in sporadic television guest roles in the 1950s, including the ABC religion anthology series, Crossroads, in the 1955 episode "The Gambler" and as Senator-designate Fairchild in an episode of the dramatic anthology series Stage 7, titled "Press Conference" in 1955.[citation needed]
By 1956, he had retired from films but still made occasional appearances on television, such as the role of Chad Hamilton in the 1962 episode "Source of Information" of the short-lived NBC newspaper drama series, Saints and Sinners.[12] In 1963, he portrayed Dr. Clay Maitland in "The Old Man and the City" on NBC's The Dick Powell Theater. He would perform with the Milwaukee Symphony and on the summer stage circuit.[13] He returned to films with Rogue's Gallery (1967).[11]
In 1968 he was cast as Dennis Roberts in the episode "Bye, Bye, Doctor" of the CBS sitcom, Petticoat Junction, and he played a cameo as a Hollywood tour guide in the all-star comedy Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood in 1976. His final screen performance was on March 1, 1980, as Steve Brian in the episode "Another Time, Another Place/Doctor Who/Gopher's Engagement" of ABC's The Love Boat. Jane Wyman and Audrey Meadows appeared in the same episode.[citation needed]
In 1983, Morgan, along with his film pal, Jack Carson, who had died in 1963, were inducted into the Wisconsin Performing Artists Hall of Fame.[14]
That same year (1983), he was critically injured in a car crash.[15]
He was a staunch Republican and a member of the Sierra Vista Presbyterian Church in Oakhurst, California.[16]
Morgan dedicated Two Strike Park on July 4, 1959, named for his belief that "a kid forced to play in the streets, with no place to play, already has two strikes against him".[17]
Starting in 1946, Morgan championed the cause of children with nowhere to play.[18] In 1949, as "honorary mayor" of La Crescenta, representing Two Strike Series, Inc., he "offered to donate five acres of land for the park if the County of Los Angeles would purchase two more adjoining acres to complete the initial parcel. In 1950, the Board of Supervisors responded with an additional 3.54 acres of parkland."[18] In 1958 Morgan spearheaded the drive to establish a new public park in La Crescenta in Los Angeles County. He raised funds for the park, at 5107 Rosemont Avenue, by "organizing exhibition baseball games featuring celebrity friends and professional athletes".[19]
Filmography
Morgan (billed as "Stanley Morner") appeared as the singing bridegroom in the famous "Wedding Cake" musical number in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), but the voice singing "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody" was that of MGM contract player Allan Jones.[20]Morgan was billed under his given name "Stanley Morner" early in his career, such as in Mama Steps Out (1937)
