Morris the Cat is the
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
mascot
A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fic ...
for
9Lives brand
cat food, appearing on its packaging and in many of its
television commercial
A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...
s since the 1970s.
Description
A large orange
tabby
A tabby is any domestic cat (''Felis catus'') with a distinctive 'M'-shaped marking on its forehead; stripes by its eyes and across its cheeks, along its back, and around its legs and tail; and (differing by tabby type), characteristic striped, d ...
tomcat
Tomcat may refer to:
Animals
* A sexually mature male cat
* Paederus, known as in Indonesia
Science and technology
* Apache Tomcat, an implementation of Java web-server technologies
* Beretta 3032 Tomcat, a pistol
* Grumman F-14 Tomcat, a f ...
, the character of Morris the Cat is "the world's most finicky cat", eating only 9Lives cat food and making this preference clear with humorously sardonic voice-over comments when offered other brands. Every can of 9Lives features Morris' "signature". Three different cats have played Morris the Cat.
The original Morris was discovered in 1968, at the Hinsdale Humane Society, a
Chicago-area
animal shelter
An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals – mostly dogs and cats – are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities, where stray livestock would ...
, by professional animal handler Bob Martwick.
An invention of the
Leo Burnett advertising company where Martwick worked, Morris was featured in 58 television commercials which aired from 1969 to 1978.
John Erwin
John Lee Erwin (born December 5, 1936) is an American voice actor best known for voicing He-Man and Morris the Cat.
Career
Erwin was the voice of He-Man in the Filmation productions ''He-Man and the Masters of the Universe'' and '' She-Ra: Prin ...
provided the voice-over for the cat.
Morris won two
PATSY Award The PATSY Award was originated by the Hollywood office of the American Humane Association in 1939. They decided to honor animal performers after a horse was killed in an on-set accident during the filming of the Tyrone Power film ''Jesse James''. Th ...
s (an award for animal performers in film and television) in 1972 and 1973.
The original Morris died on July 7, 1978 in his native Chicago of old age.
All cats to play Morris have been rescue animals, either from an
animal shelter
An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals – mostly dogs and cats – are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of agricultural communities, where stray livestock would ...
or a cat rescue. After receiving multiple contacts from individuals who claimed that they were the original owner of Morris, Bob Martwick chose not to reveal which shelter he obtained the second Morris from.
After a yearlong search, Martwick selected the second Morris, who began appearing in commercials in 1979.
The first two cats to play Morris lived with Martwick as pets.
Morris's popularity continued into the 1980s, with the Leo Burnett Company orchestrating a mock presidential campaign for Morris in 1988.
The current Morris lives in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
with his handler, Rose Ordile. The Leo Burnett Company parted ways with 9Lives' corporate parent
Heinz
The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six contine ...
in 1994.
Other appearances
Morris has appeared in other media over the years. He debuted in the
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman ( ; February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He was a five-time nominee of the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered an enduring figure from the New ...
film ''
The Long Goodbye'' with
Elliott Gould
Elliott Gould (; né Goldstein; born August 29, 1938) is an American actor. He began acting in Hollywood films during the 1960s.
Elliott's breakthrough role was in the ''Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'' (1969), for which he received a nomination f ...
, and starred in the movie ''
Shamus'' with
Burt Reynolds
Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. (February 11, 1936 – September 6, 2018) was an American actor, considered a sex symbol and icon of 1970s American popular culture.
Reynolds first rose to prominence when he starred in television series such as '' ...
and
Dyan Cannon
Dyan Cannon (born Samille Diane Friesen; January 4, 1937) is an American actress, director, screenwriter, producer, and editor. Her accolades include a Saturn Award, a Golden Globe Award, three Academy Award nominations, and a star on the Holly ...
in 1973.
Morris also appears as a "spokescat" promoting responsible pet ownership, pet health and pet adoptions through animal shelters.
To this end, he has "authored" three books: ''The Morris Approach,'' ''The Morris Method'' and ''The Morris Prescription''.
He was quoted at the 1993 "end of year" edition of
''People'' magazine which noted deaths of 1993 to which he quoted a simple "Meow" in honor of the death of his friend, fellow advertising mascot, the dog
Spuds MacKenzie.
In 2006, Morris was depicted as adopting a kitten, Li'l Mo, from a Los Angeles animal shelter, representing the first adoptee in a campaign known as Morris' Million Cat Rescue.
British advertising
When he first appeared in British television advertisements in the late 1970s, he was coincidentally voiced by
Johnny Morris (then famous in the UK for his anthropomorphic character portrayals in the series ''
Animal Magic''), which led many British viewers, unaware of the character's origins, to wrongly suppose that the cat had been named after Morris himself. British ads for 9Lives later featured the voice of
Richard Briers
Richard David Briers (14 January 1934 – 17 February 2013) was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television.
Briers first came to prominence as George Starling in '' Marriage Lines'' (1961–66), bu ...
.
See also
*
List of individual cats
This is a list of famous cats which achieved some degree of popularity either in their own right or by association with someone famous.
Before the modern era
* Nedjem or Nojem ( Egyptian: ''nḏm'' "Sweet One" or "Sweetie"), 15th century BC. The ...
References
External links
Hinsdale Humane Society- About Morris the Cat
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Morris The Cat
Animal actors
Male characters in advertising
Food advertising characters
Cat mascots
Hinsdale, Illinois
Mascots introduced in 1968