Dennis Morgan (born Earl Stanley Morner; December 20, 1908 – September 7, 1994) was an American actor-singer. He used the acting pseudonym Richard Stanley before adopting the name under which he gained his greatest fame.
According to one obituary, he was "a twinkly-eyed handsome charmer with a shy smile and a pleasant tenor voice in carefree and inconsequential Warner Bros musicals of the forties, accompanied by Jack Carson." Another said, "for all his undoubted star potential, Morgan was perhaps cast once too often as the likeable, clean-cut, easy-going but essentially uncharismatic young man who typically loses his girl to someone more sexually magnetic." David Shipman said he "was comfortable, good-looking, well-mannered: the antithesis of the gritty Bogart."
Life and career
Early life
Morgan was born in the village of Prentice in Price County, in northern Wisconsin, the son of Grace J. (née Vandusen) and Frank Edward Morner. He was of Swedish descent on his father's side.
He enrolled at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin as a member of the 1930 graduating class. He was awarded the Carroll College Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1983.
Early career
He began his career as a radio announcer in Milwaukee and went on to broadcast Green Bay Packers football games. He became a radio singer in Chicago.
Stanley Morner at MGM
After relocating to Los Angeles, Morgan began appearing in films. He signed a contract with MGM as "Stanley Morner".
Unbilled, he lip synced as Allan Jones sang the Irving Berlin song, A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody, in The Great Ziegfeld (1936).
He was billed as "Stanley Morner" in Suzy (1936) and could be seen in Piccadilly Jim (1936), and Old Hutch (1936).
He was given a decent role in Mama Steps Out (1937) and Song of the City (1937) but went back to small parts in Navy Blue and Gold (1937).
Richard Stanley at Paramount
He signed with Paramount who billed him as "Richard Stanley". He was in Men with Wings (1938), King of Alcatraz (1938), Illegal Traffic (1938), and Persons in Hiding (1939).
Warner Bros.
He went over to Warner Bros. who billed him as "Dennis Morgan". According to Shipman the studio "put him on the assembly-line with Wayne Morris, Arthur Kennedy, Jeffrey Lynn, Eddie Albert and Ronald Reagan – likeable young lugs squiring the heroine till Bogart, Cagney or Flynn came crashing down to sweep her up."
He was given the lead in a B picture, Waterfront (1939), followed by No Place to Go (1939) and The Return of Doctor X (1939) with Humphrey Bogart.
Morgan was promoted to "A" films with The Fighting 69th (1940), supporting James Cagney and Pat O'Brien. He supported Priscilla Lane in Three Cheers for the Irish (1940) and went back to "B"s for Tear Gas Squad (1940), Flight Angels (1940), and River's End (1940).
Morgan's career received a boost when RKO borrowed him to play Ginger Rogers' love interest in Kitty Foyle (1940), a big hit.
Warners put him in some comedies, Affectionately Yours (1941) and Kisses for Breakfast (1941), then a Western, Bad Men of Missouri (1941). He supported Cagney again in Captains of the Clouds (1942) and Bette Davis and Olivia de Havilland in In This Our Life (1942).
Morgan co-starred with Ann Sheridan in Wings for the Eagle (1942) and Ida Lupino in The Hard Way (1943). He had the lead in some big Warners musicals: Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943), full of cameos from Warner stars; The Desert Song (1943); Shine On, Harvest Moon (1944), with Sheridan. The latter also featured Jack Carson in a key role. He and Morgan were in The Hard Way together and would go on to be a notable team.
Morgan was in The Very Thought of You (1944) and cameoed in Hollywood Canteen (1944). He had the lead in God Is My Co-Pilot (1945) and Christmas in Connecticut (1945) with Barbara Stanwyck.
Teamed with Jack Carson
Morgan was teamed with fellow Wisconsinite Jack Carson in One More Tomorrow (1946). Warners liked them as a combination, seeing them as similar to Bing Crosby and Bob Hope at Paramount. In the words of Shipman, the films would feature "Morgan as the easy-going singer who always got the girl and Carson as the loud-mouthed but cowardly braggard-comic who was given the air. No one thought they were Hope and Crosby, least of all themselves." They were reunited in Two Guys from Milwaukee (1946) and The Time, the Place and the Girl (1946).
Without Carson, Morgan made a Western, Cheyenne (1946), a musical My Wild Irish Rose (1947), and To the Victor (1948). In 1947, he was voted Singer of the Year.