Wolfe Morris (born Woolf Steinberg, 5 January 1925 – 21 July 1996) was an English actor, who played character roles on stage, television and in feature films from the 1950s until the 1990s. He made his film debut in '' Ill Met by Moonlight''. His grandparents were from
Kiev
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
and escaped the Russian pogroms, arriving in London in about 1890. The family moved to
Portsmouth
Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...
at the turn of the century. Morris was one of nine children born to Becky (née Levine) and Morry Steinberg. His younger brother, Aubrey Morris, was also an accomplished actor. His daughter Shona Morris became a stage actress.
Morris trained as an actor at the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...
, graduating in 1943. In his career, spanning five decades, he appeared in almost 90 different films and TV shows, as well as appearing in numerous stage plays as a member of the
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and opens around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratf ...
. His best-known role on television was as Thomas Cromwell in '' The Six Wives of Henry VIII''. In preparation for it, he visited a number of English castles to study the characters' portraits.
In 1968, he played
Gollum
Gollum is a Tolkien's monsters, monster with a distinctive style of speech in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy world of Middle-earth. He was introduced in the 1937 Fantasy (genre), fantasy novel ''The Hobbit'', and became important in its sequel, ' ...
in the BBC Radio dramatisation of ''
The Hobbit
''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the ...
'', and later starred as the mad waxworks owner in the Amicus horror
anthology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and g ...
The Camp on Blood Island
''The Camp on Blood Island'' is a 1958 British World War II film, directed by Val Guest for Hammer Film Productions and starring André Morell, Carl Möhner, Edward Underdown and Walter Fitzgerald.
The film is set in a Japanese prisoner o ...
Nine Hours to Rama
''Nine Hours to Rama'' is a1963 British-American neo noir crime film directed by Mark Robson (film director), Mark Robson that follows a fictionalised Nathuram Godse in the hours before he Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, assassinated the India ...
The Mackintosh Man
''The Mackintosh Man'' is a 1973 Cold War spy film directed by John Huston from a screenplay by Walter Hill, based on the novel '' The Freedom Trap'' by English author Desmond Bagley. Paul Newman stars as Joseph Rearden, a jewel thief-turned-int ...
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...
The Camp on Blood Island
''The Camp on Blood Island'' is a 1958 British World War II film, directed by Val Guest for Hammer Film Productions and starring André Morell, Carl Möhner, Edward Underdown and Walter Fitzgerald.
The film is set in a Japanese prisoner o ...
Nine Hours to Rama
''Nine Hours to Rama'' is a1963 British-American neo noir crime film directed by Mark Robson (film director), Mark Robson that follows a fictionalised Nathuram Godse in the hours before he Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, assassinated the India ...
'' (1963) – Det. Bose
*''
Doctor Who
''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...
'' (1967, ''
The Abominable Snowmen
''The Abominable Snowmen'' is the mostly missing second serial of the fifth season of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who'', which originally aired in six weekly parts from 30 September to 4 November 1967.
In this se ...
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
''One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich'' (, ) is a short novel by the Russian writer and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, first published in November 1962 in the Soviet literary magazine ''Novy Mir'' (''New World'').The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' (1970) -
Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell (; – 28 July 1540) was an English statesman and lawyer who served as List of English chief ministers, chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false cha ...
The Mackintosh Man
''The Mackintosh Man'' is a 1973 Cold War spy film directed by John Huston from a screenplay by Walter Hill, based on the novel '' The Freedom Trap'' by English author Desmond Bagley. Paul Newman stars as Joseph Rearden, a jewel thief-turned-int ...
Cuba
Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...