Korean War Vet Robert Morse Conquered Both Broadway and Hollywood

Before Robert Morse launched an iconic acting career on Broadway and in Hollywood, the Massachusetts native served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. Moving to New York after his service, he studied acting with Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio and got his big break in the 1961 musical, "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."

Morse died at age 90 on April 20, 2022 at his home in Los Angeles. Different generations of movie and television fans know the actor for different roles, so here's a look at some of his most iconic performances.

1. Bert Cooper -- "Mad Men" (2007-2015)

Morse is most famous for playing the senior partner at the ad agency Sterling Cooper on the television series, "Mad Men." Bert may have seemed disconnected from the ad biz hustle most of the time, but he spotted Don Draper's talent early and gave Jon Hamm's character advice at critical moments over the course of the series.

Morse had one of the great exit scenes in television history. After Cooper dies halfway through the final season, he appears in a Don Draper hallucination and serenades him with a performance of "The Best Things in Life Are Free."

2. J. Pierpont Finch -- "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" (1967)

Morse won a Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for this lead role in 1961. Hollywood kicked around the idea of a movie for half a decade, at one point offering the role of Finch to Dick Van Dyke. Fortunately for audiences, they finally made the movie with Morse in the lead role.

Finch consults the advice book, "How to Succeed in Business," as he plots his rise from the mailroom to the boardroom in this satire of white-collar America. Finch fakes it until he makes it and then keeps on faking it, just like all the other executives he meets along the way.

When creator Matthew Weiner cast Morse in "Mad Men," he was definitely looking to evoke memories of Morse in "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," and the movie's sets were obviously a huge influence on the iconic throwback look of "Mad Men."

3. Ed Stander -- "A Guide for the Married Man" (1967)

If you're under the age of 30, you might be shocked by the attitudes on display in "A Guide for the Married Man," one of the biggest movie hits of 1967 and a movie that's now extremely out of print and unavailable.

World War II vet Walter Matthau plays Paul Manning, a successful businessman with a very attractive wife (Inger Stevens). Once he learns that his neighbor, Ed Stander (Morse), has been carrying on an affair, Manning wants to know exactly how his friend is getting away with it.

Morse then tells Matthau tales of infidelity that are portrayed onscreen by a host of famous actors, including World War I veteran Jack Benny and WWII vets Joey Bishop, Sid Caesar, Art Carney, Wally Cox, Jeffrey Hunter, Louis Nye, Carl Reiner and Terry-Thomas. The cast also included Lucille Ball, Jayne Mansfield, Polly Bergen, Sue Ane Langdon, Majel Barrett and Linda Harrison.

Gene Kelly directed the movie, which is full of jokes which, depending on your perspective, will either be hilarious insights into the immaturity of men or alarmingly sexist and retrograde. Morse is fantastic as the bad influence who aims to convince Matthau to stray.

4. Dennis Barlow -- "The Loved One" (1965)

"The Loved One" is a sophisticated dark comedy about the American funeral business and based on a novel by the British author Evelyn Waugh ("Brideshead Revisited"). The movie was director Tony Richardson's follow-up to his Oscar-winning direction of "Tom Jones," and MGM was baffled as to how to promote it, so it made a zany trailer that doesn't really reflect the humor in the film.

Morse plays Dennis Barlow, a young Englishman who's visiting his uncle (John Gielgud) in Los Angeles when the old man gets fired from his movie studio job and hangs himself. Barlow has to arrange a funeral in a foreign country that has elevated the memorial service to a massive commercial enterprise. Morse is joined in the cast by WWII vets Jonathan Winters and Rod Steiger, Army reservist Roddy McDowall, Army vet James Coburn and Coast Guard vet Tab Hunter. Liberace, Dana Andrews, Robert Morley and Milton Berle also star.

The movie didn't play with audiences in 1965 but it's become a favorite over the years as it's played in revival theaters and been released on DVD and Blu-ray.

Morse also had a long career voicing characters in animated series, most notably as Howler in the 1980s series "Pound Puppies." He also performed the title character in the Rankin-Bass 1979 animated holiday special "Jack Frost" and appeared on "Rugrats," "The Wild Thornberrys," "Teen Titans Go!" and "Sofia the First."

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