Bret Morrison

In “old time” radio history, Bret Morrison will be forever famous for his voice in the popular radio show, The Shadow. Born in Chicago, Illinois on May 5, 1912, Morrison also played roles in movies and television such as Lamar Fisk in “The Streets of San Francisco” which premiered in 1974.

In 1939-43 Bret Morrison played in episodes of Lights Out including, The Meteor Man, The Little People, Nobody Died, Profits Unlimited and Revolt of the Worms. On April 5, 1950, Morrison was cast in Beyond Tomorrow, a science fiction radio show with Frank Lovejoy and Everett Sloane. Beyond Tomorrow is known for being the first science fiction radio broadcast for an adult audience, but was canceled after three episodes. In 1951 he appeared in The Mysterious Traveler. In 1974 Morrison played in a CBS Radio Mystery Theater play called The Black Whale which also starred Brock Peters and Ken Lynch.

Other credits for Bret Morrison include:

• Voice and Behind the Nudist Curtain – Morrison was the narrator.
• Black Eye – Morrison played the role of Majors.
• Dinah East – Bret was cast in the role of Hank Simpson.
• Guess What We Learned in School Today – Morrison was the first radio voice.
• The Chicago Theater Of the Air – An operetta where Morrison was cast with Betty Winkler and Marvin Miller.
• The First Nighter Program - This radio show was a romantic anthology which cast Morrison with Macdonald Carey, Don Ameche and June Meredith.
• The Light of the World – Based on the words of the Bible, this serial drama cast Morrison as “The Speaker,” – basically the voice of God who narrated the show.
• Listening Post – This radio serial used stories from the Saturday Evening Post and cast Morrison as the host of the show.
• Musical Bouquet – This show consisted of romantic music – and Bret acted as the host/narrator.

Morrison took over the voice of The Shadow from Orson Welles, the show’s originator and was the last actor to play that role on the radio. The Shadow character that Morrison portrayed was a champion for law and order. Morrison spent ten years on the show and skyrocketed to fame with his ominous voice. Bret Morrison played Lamont Cranston aka The Shadow first in 1943 – 1944 and then again when he came back from the war from October 1945 until the show finished on December 26th 1954. Grace Matthews played opposite him as Margo Lane faithful companion of The Shadow from 1946 through 1949.

I have a wonderful recording to add to RUSC in which Richard Lamparski interviews Bret Morrison and Grace Matthews in Whatever Happened To The Shadow. I am not sure when it was broadcast but it could be in the early 1970's. 

One of Morrison’s films in his later life was “The Cooler,” in which he starred with William Macy and Alec Baldwin.

Bret Morrison passed away on September 25, 1978.

Happy listening my friends,