Broadway star Patricia Morison dead at 103

Broadway star Patricia Morison, best known for hit musicals "Kiss Me, Kate" and "The King and I", has died. She was 103.

The actor passed away on Saturday at her home in West Hollywood, California, reported Variety.

Morison was born on March 15, 1915 in New York City, the daughter of playwright and actor William Morison and Selena Fraser, a British Intelligence agent during World War I.

After graduating from high school, Morison took acting classes and made her stage debut at the Provincetown Playhouse in the musical revue "Don't Mind the Rain."

Her Broadway debut followed shortly, in 1933's "Growing Pains," though she never appeared on stage, instead acting as the stand-by for Helen Hayes in the lead role of Victoria Regina.

 

Morison made her feature film debut in the 1939 film "Persons in Hiding". She starred in eight more films through 1942.

In 1942, when the US was involved in World War II, she joined the USO and entertained the troops. She returned to the cinema as Empress Eugenie in "The Song of Bernadette" (1943) and more. In 1944, she returned to the Broadway stage in "Allah Be Praised!", but the show closed.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Morison made numerous appearances on television, and in 1971 she and Yul Brynner performed "Shall We Dance" from "The King and I" on a broadcast of the Tony Awards. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Morison performed on stage several times.

In December 2012, at age 97, she appeared on stage in an evening entitled Ladies of an Indeterminate Age at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. Her co-stars included Charlotte Rae and Anne Jeffreys. In March 2014, at age 99, she appeared on stage for Broadway Backwards 9, a benefit for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. She sang "Brush Up Your Shakespeare" from "Kiss Me, Kate".

In her later years, Morison took up her early passion of painting, with several showings in and around Los Angeles, New York and Japan. Never married, she lived in Los Angeles the remainder of her life, and continued to support theater and organisations such as The Actors Fund, The LGBT Community Center, The Thaiians, and The Hollywood Museum.