RIP Read Morgan

 

SAG-AFTRA Magazine

Wikipedia

 

According to summer issue of the SAG-AFTRA magazine actor Read Morgan died on May 9. 2022. Read Lawrence Morgan was born on January 30, 1931 and was an American film and television actor. He is known for playing the role of Sergeant Hapgood Tasker in the American western television series The Deputy.

Morgan was born in Chicago, Illinois and attended at the University of Kentucky, where he played basketball. After attending there for two years, Morgan pursued an acting career. He also was involved in bodybuilding getting himself some "tough character" roles. Morgan also attended Northwestern University and served in the United States Air Force for two years, pushing aside his acting career plans.

Morgan began his acting career in the crime drama television series ‘The Big Story’, in 1949. Later, he joined the cast of the western television series ‘The Deputy’, playing army officer Sergeant Hapgood Tasker, who was blind in one eye, wearing an eye patch. Morgan also appeared in the Broadway play “Li'l Abner”.

Morgan then appeared in numerous television programs, as his credits include, ‘Gunsmoke’, ‘Wagon Train’, ‘The United States Steel Hour’, ‘M Squad’, ‘How the West Was Won’, ‘Laramie’, ‘The Outsider’, ‘The Twilight Zone’, ‘State Trooper’ and ‘Paradise’. He also appeared and co-starred in films, such as “Back to the Future”, “Just Between Friends”, “The Beach Girls and the Monster”, “Dillinger”, “Lightning, the White Stallion” and “The New Centurions”. Morgan retired in 1994, as his last credit was from the film “Maverick”, where he played the role of a "Card Dealer".

 

MORGAN, Read (Read Lawrence Morgan)

Born: 1/30/1931, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

Died: 5/9/2022, U.S.A.

 

Read Morgan’s westerns – actor:

The Restless Gun (TV) – 1958 (Bob Kenyon)

The Deputy (TV) – 1959-1961 (Sergeant Hapgood Tasker)

Gunsmoke (TV) – 1959,1965, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974 (Joe Kell, Pete Moreland,

     lieutenant, Dan Slade, Roy Gast, Eddie, Brown, Potter, Jack Beaver, bartender)

Laramie (TV) – 1959, 1960 (stagecoach passenger, Charlie, Ames, Glen Bentley)

Riverboat (TV) – 1959 (Clint Casey)

Shotgun Slade (TV) – 1959 (deputy)

Tales of Wells Fargo (TV) – 1959 (Jeff Peters)

Wagon Train (TV) – 1959 (Ben Denike, Curly Horse, Jake,)

Hotel de Paree (TV) – 1960 (Jesse Hobbs)

Overland Trail (TV) – 1960 (Phil Braddock)

Whispering Smith (TV) – 1961 (Hob Judson)

Wide Country (TV) – 1962 (Art Squires)

The Virginian (TV) – 1963 (Mort)

Black Spurs – 1965 (blacksmith)

Deadwood ’76 – 1965 (Ben Hayes)

The Big Valley (TV) – 1965 (sheriff)

Bonanza (TV) – 1965 (Tad Blake)

A Man Called Shenandoah (TV) – 1966 (Cal)

Pistols ‘n’ Petticoats (TV) – 1966 (Moose Dreyfus)

Cimarron Strip (TV) – 1967 (Jess Daley)

Custer (TV) – 1967 (medicine man)

Fort Utah – 1967 (cavalry lieutenant)

Hostile Guns – 1967 (Tubby)

Alias Smith & Jones (TV) – 1971 (conductor, Lobo, Charley)

Joe Kidd – 1972 (cowboy)

The Deadly Trackers – 1973 (Deputy Bob)

One Little Indian – 1973 (Reb)

Breakheart Pass – 1975 (Captain Oakland)

The Captive: The Longest Drive 2 (TV) – 1976

The Quest (TV) – 1976 (officer)

How the West Was Won (TV) – 1978, 1979 (Lem, Morton)

Paradise (TV) – 1990 (Harrington)

Maverick – 1994 (card dealer)