Howard Morris (September 4, 1919 – May 21, 2005) was an American comic actor and director.
Morris was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Elsie and Hugo Morris, a rubber company executive. He came to prominence in appearances on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows (a live sketch comedy television series appearing weekly in the United States, from 1950 until June 5, 1954). Although Morris was a classically trained Shakespearean actor, he is best r...
more
Howard Morris (September 4, 1919 – May 21, 2005) was an American comic actor and director.
Morris was born in the Bronx, New York, the son of Elsie and Hugo Morris, a rubber company executive. He came to prominence in appearances on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows (a live sketch comedy television series appearing weekly in the United States, from 1950 until June 5, 1954). Although Morris was a classically trained Shakespearean actor, he is best remembered for playing the wily and over the top "mountain man" character Ernest T. Bass on The Andy Griffith Show. He had lampooned southern accents while in the army at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He starred in one of the more comical early hour-long Twilight Zone episodes, "I Dream of Jeannie". Other roles included that of Elmer Kelp in The Nutty Professor, a movie studio clerk in the short film Star Spangled Salesman, and an art appraiser in an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Morris also played a variety of voices in many Hanna-Barbera...
less
