Actor Barry Morse, who played a detective pursuing the wrongly accused Dr. Richard Kimble in 1960s TV series “The Fugitive,” has died, his son said Tuesday. He was 89.
Hayward Morse said his father died Saturday at University College Hospital in London after a brief illness.
Born in London in 1918, Morse trained at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and appeared in British repertory and West End theaters before emigrating in 1951 to Canada, where he became a regular on radio and television.
The actor’s Web site estimated he played more than 3,000 roles on radio, TV, stage and screen over a seven-decade career.
In 1963, he was hired by producer Quinn Martin to play Lt. Philip Gerard on “The Fugitive.” The series ran for 120 episodes over four seasons, teasing audiences with the cat-and-mouse pursuit of Kimble, wrongly accused of murdering his wife, by the implacable Gerard.
“He thought it was a good show — well filmed, well directed and well acted,” Hayward Morse said. “He had nothing disparaging to say about ’The Fugitive.”’
In 1966, he was named artistic director of the Shaw theater festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, rescuing it from financial crisis.
Morse was a lifelong devotee of playwright George Bernard Shaw, and his son said reviving the festival, which produces the works of Shaw and his contemporaries, was his proudest achievement.
Morse is survived by his son and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
His family planned a private cremation.