Robert Morley

Portly English character actor who first gained acclaim on the London stage for his title role in "Oscar Wilde." Morley successfully reprised the part on Broadway in 1938, leading to an invitation to Hollywood and an Oscar-nominated film debut as Louis XVI in "Marie Antoinette" (1938).

A jovial comic figure who could equally convincingly erupt into rage, Morley portrayed several more royal or aristocratic types, including King George III, in "Beau Brummel" (1954); Louis XI, in "Quentin Durward" (1955); and the Earl of Manchester, in "Cromwell" (1970). Other real-life figures he played were Charles James Fox, in "The Young Mr. Pitt" (1942); Oscar Hammerstein, in "Melba" (1953); and W.S. Gilbert, in "Gilbert and Sullivan" (1953). A cultivated, erudite presence, Morley imposed a distinctive stamp both on his more serious films and on campy vehicles like "Theatre of Blood" (1973). In this cult classic, he played a pompous theater critic gruesomely dispatched by a Shakespearean actor (Vincent Price) whom he had panned.