PATRICIA MORISON

(19 March 1915 - 20 May 2018)

The American actress Patricia Morison, who has died from natural causes aged 103, will be best remembered for creating the role of Lili Vanessi in Cole Porter’s musical Kiss Me, Kate and later taking over in The King and I. However, early on she had a film career, on account of her great beauty and her long black hair. After a spell in the theatre, Morison made her feature film debut in Persons in Hiding (1939), a B-picture from Paramount Pictures who put her under contract. Unfortunately, she never landed great parts and was restricted to mainly playing femmes fatales in minor movies. During World War II she entertained the troops and returned to films for Hitler’s Madman, The Fallen Sparrow and The Song of Bernadette. Post-war saw her in MGM’s Without Love, Universal’s Lady on a Train and the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes starrer Dressed to Kill. She was in Johnny Weissmuller’s last jungle pic Tarzan and the Huntress, Song of the Thin Man and in Kiss of Death she played a rape and suicide victim but her part was cut. Following her success in Kiss Me, Kate, which she also played in twice on television, she worked mainly on the small screen for most of her subsequent career. She returned briefly to films to play Georges Sand in Song Without End (1960). Her final performance came in the most unlikely of films, Terence Davies’ The Long Day Closes in 1992. She never married.

MICHAEL DARVELL