Barry Morse has Died

February 5, 2008 3:27 AM

Barry Morse - an actor with an extremely rich and varied career, popular in many roles but iconic as the (original) pursuer of Dr Richard Kimble in the (original) tv series The Fugitive, and memorable to Sci Fi fans as Professor Victor Bergman in Space: 1999, has passed on. He was 89.

Morse's devotion to the works of George Bernard Shaw was legendary: he served as artistic director of the Shaw Festival of Canada for its 1966 season, and revived the festival itself. After his return in 1976 to life in London, Morse became vice-president and eventually president of the Shaw Society.

posted by Henry C. Mabuse (11 comments total)

God, I loved The Fugitive when I was a kid. I envied the character: he was always traveling, always meeting new people, then moving on! I found it very romantic, very exciting. I remember once saying to my dad, "when I grow up, I wanna be a fugitive"! And I remember him laughing.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 3:43 AM on February 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

I read elsewhere he was 90
posted by A189Nut at 4:45 AM on February 5, 2008

Wow...nostalgia for Space:1999, which I loved back in the 70s. RIP, Barry.
posted by davidmsc at 4:51 AM on February 5, 2008

More Space:1999 nostalgia here. For some reason the gentle wisdom of the Victor Bergman character resonated with me, although as an early teen I didn't realize it; he made a nice foil to the more standard-issue adventure-show sort of characters.
posted by pax digita at 5:24 AM on February 5, 2008

Lt. Girard seemed so much more a worthy pursuer than Tommy Lee Jones' marshall in the movie version.

Also, thinking of The Fugitive reminds me how much I miss the old A&E, back before it became All Reality, All the Time.
posted by evilcolonel at 7:04 AM on February 5, 2008

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posted by Smart Dalek at 7:28 AM on February 5, 2008

.-. .. .--.
posted by vbfg at 8:23 AM on February 5, 2008

I remember it being '77 or '78 and wanting ANYTHING Star Wars for Christmas. I'm not sure if there was a Star Wars toy shortage, or if my wish list got truncated to "anything spacey" by my mom, but on Christmas day I opened my present, expecting Darth Vader, Han Solo, or a stormtrooper and got this.

Yup. A middle aged, balding man with sideburns of doom decked out in a brown jump suit. His 'laser' looked like a freakin' staple gun which I suppose would come in handy for stapling together all the research reports and stuff that he did on Moonbase Alpha.

It wasn't till much later that I thought it was the coolest 'action' figure ever made.

From the NY Times obit:

He appeared in so many Canadian television productions, Mr. Wood said, that “a critic back in the ’50s called him the test pattern for the CBC.”

Heh.
posted by mazola at 9:02 AM on February 5, 2008

So sad. I'll miss him.

Even as a kid, I wondered how it was that the hugely gigantic futuristic computer system that they had on Moonbase Alpha (a) communicated its results by tape, even though it had a voice interface; and (b) apparently couldn't out-think a middle-aged professor, which meant that in the middle of some tense situation they would have to turn to Bergman to ask him a question, at which point the camera would zoom in, he would purse his lips and have a great big think and eventually say, "I don't know John."
posted by googly at 9:49 AM on February 5, 2008

Communicated results on tape -more like toilet paper if I recall
posted by A189Nut at 11:50 AM on February 5, 2008

I don't think I ever saw Space 1999, but I do remember, in December 1982, going with my grade 6 class in London Ontario to see A Christmas Carol with Barry Morse playing Scrooge. It was a big deal for us; especially to have a real famous actor there onstage.
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posted by Flashman at 4:59 PM on February 5, 2008