Mike Morgan

Mike Morgan was a young, very gifted actor whose life and career were cut short tragically early. Morgan made his screen acting debut in 1957, with a small role in the Ealing comedy Barnacle Bill, directed by Charles Frend and starring Alec Guinness. He was cast in a much larger part in the comedy The Horse's Mouth, directed by Ronald Neame and starring Guinness (who also wrote the screenplay), which went into production in the spring of 1958. Morgan was brilliant in the role of Nosey, the stuttering, nervous, yet totally guileless and dedicated acolyte of Guinness' character, the artist Gulley Jimson. Morgan was in a major portion of the movie, including the first scene and the final shot, sharing most of his scenes with Guinness or Kay Walsh, and performed brilliantly; he also had the final line in the film. It should have been a star-making performance for the young actor, who wasn't yet 30 years old (and looked 20), but it turned out to be a memorial. In May of 1958, shortly after principal photography on the picture was completed, Morgan fell ill, and within a week he died of a particularly virulent strain of meningitis. As many of his scenes were outdoor location shots, the dialogue couldn't be used, and the intention had been to loop his voice in later, in the studio -- this was accomplished by means of a voice mimic. In a 2002 interview about The Horse's Mouth accompanying its release on DVD in America, Neame said that on watching the movie anew, he was unable to tell any longer where Morgan's real voice was and where the mimic's voice replaced him.

~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide