Bret Morrison (5 May 1912 – 25 September 1978)DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 197. was an American actor best known as the voice of the mysterious crusader for law and order on radio's ''

The Shadow The Shadow is a fictional character created by magazine publishers Street & Smith and writer Walter B. Gibson. Originally created to be a mysterious radio show narrator, and developed into a distinct literary character in 1931 by writer Walter ...

''. He was also a popular cabaret singer. Born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, Morrison entered radio during the 1930s while he was still in Chicago High School. He began with ''

The First Nighter Program ''The First Nighter Program'' was a long-running radio anthology comedy-drama series broadcast from November 27, 1930, to September 27, 1953. The host was Mr. First Nighter (Charles P. Hughes, Macdonald Carey, Bret Morrison, Marvin Miller, Don Br ...

''. In 1937, he was in the cast of ''Lucky Girl'', a Monday-Friday drama broadcast on WGN in Chicago. Morrison portrayed the Shadow longer than any other actor, spending 10 years in the role in two separate runs. Bill Johnstone played the Shadow until early 1943. Morrison replaced Johnstone in April, 1943, continuing until 1944. John Archer (1944–45) was followed by Steve Courtleigh (1945). Morrison then returned from 1945 until 1954. For many, he was the definitive voice of the Shadow, though his delivery was much less sinister than

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, known for his innovative work in film, radio and theatre. He is considered to be among the greatest and most influential f ...

, who also portrayed the Shadow during its first full year run. Morrison's other roles in radio programs included those shown in the table below. In 1974 Morrison was living in

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...

. At age 66, Morrison died of a heart attack. He was found slumped over the steering wheel of his parked car on a Hollywood street where he had stopped for shopping after taping an episode of ''Heartbeat Theater''. It was believed 107-degree temperatures in a Southern California heat wave may have prompted Morrison's heart attack."People,"''Daily Herald'', September 27, 1978.
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References

1912 births 1978 deaths American male radio actors American male voice actors Male actors from Palm Springs, California 20th-century American male actors {{US-radio-bio-stub