Francis Gregory Alan (Williams) Morris (1933 - 1996)

Born 27 Sep 1933 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, United States

Ancestors

Died 27 Aug 1996 at age 62 in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

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Biography

Greg (Williams) Morris is Notable.

Greg Morris was an American actor. He was best known for portraying Barney Collier on Mission: Impossible and Lt. David Nelson on Vega$.

Francis Gregory Alan Morris was born in 1933. He was the son of Iona Morris and jazz trumpeter Francis Williams.

Husband of Leona Keyes.

Greg Morris, who in portraying the electronics expert on Mission: Impossible was one of the first black actors to star in a hit television show.

Mr. Morris played the self-effacing Barney Collier on Mission: Impossible from 1966 to 1973. Earlier he had appeared on Ben Casey, Dr. Kildare, The Dick Van Dyke Show and The Twilight Zone. He was featured in the first season of Peyton Place as police officer Frank. Later in his career he regularly appeared in the series Vegas.

He co-starred in Roots: The Next Generation

Mr. Morris was born in Cleveland and spent part of his youth in New York City, where his mother was a secretary to A. Philip Randolph, the black labor leader who helped found the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

I always had an awareness of the black revolution, he told The Christian Science Monitor in 1970, at the peak of his fame. When I was a kid, 9 or 10, I used to walk down Seventh Avenue and 125th Street with a sandwich sign on my back that said 'Down With Jim Crow.'

Mr. Morris attended Ohio State University and the University of Iowa, served in the Army for three years and worked as a wine steward before arriving in Hollywood in the early 1960's after some minor theater work in Seattle.

While in college, he was active in theater and hosted a popular afternoon Jazz radio show called Tea-Time, which was broadcast on the University of Iowa's station, WSUI. Morris also helped produce concerts at the University with a student friend.

After the Mission: Impossible series was completed, Morris continued to star as guest roles in many TV programs.

He once said that his years on Mission: Impossible were seven of the most fun years of my career.

If I had turned down the role, Geller was going to ask a blond, blue-eyed Scandinavian, he said. The show's producer was Bruce Geller.

The part had nothing to do with the fact that I am black, he added. I was one of the first black actors in a series, but not the first. Ivan Dixon was in 'Hogan's Heroes,' and 'Cos' was in 'I Spy,' he noted, referring to the actor Bill Cosby.

He died in 1996 of a brain tumor.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Morris

• https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0606569/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

• Death: "United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007"
  FamilySearch Record: 6K37-GDSS (accessed 14 May 2023)
  Gregory Allan Williams death 27 Aug 1996 (born 27 Sep 1933).

• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KWRS-N1D : accessed 30 May 2018), Gregory Williams in household of Montrose Waite, Ward 30, Cleveland City, Cleveland City, Cuyahoga, Ohio, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 92-795, sheet 10B, line 67, family 193, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3234.

• "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JPLQ-128 : 20 May 2014), Greg Morris, 27 Aug 1996; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).

• "CNN - 'Mission: Impossible' Actor Dies - Aug. 28, 1996." 2023. Cnn.com. 2023. http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9608/28/morris.obit/.

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/22782/greg-morris: accessed May 2, 2024), memorial page for Greg Morris (27 Sep 1933–27 Aug 1996), Find a Grave Memorial ID 22782; Maintained by Find a Grave.