'Kiss Me, Kate' star Patricia Morison dies at age 103

June 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Patricia Morison, the famous actress from The Song of Bernadette and Dressed to Kill passed away at her home in Los Angeles from natural causes.

The 103-year-old drew her last breath on Sunday, May 20, 2018, leaving behind a career that only a selected few will ever be able to match. Her most famous performance was in Cole Porter's musical Kiss Me, Kate, in 1948.

Born in 1915, in New York, she graduated from Washington Irving High School, took acting classes at Neighborhood Playhouse and learned to dance under Martha Graham, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Her first opportunity to shine appeared in 1933, when she starred in Growing Pains, a short-lived comedy. Later on, in 1938, Morison made quite an impression in The Two Bouquets alongside Leo G. Carrol.

Following her performance, Paramount approached her with a contract, which she eagerly signed, becoming Hollywood's newest addition. The film company nicknamed her 'The Fire and Ice Girl.'

Persons in Hiding, in 1939, was the movie chosen for Morison's film debut, where she played the role of an evil woman who drove her husband to commit murder.

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Thanks to her next gigs, Morison was able to meet some of Hollywood's finest at the time; she appeared in The Fallen Sparrow with Spencer Tracy, Without Love with Katharine Hepburn and Jennifer Jones in The Song of Bernadette.

The late actress also added The King and I to her list of accomplishments when Gertrude Lawrence passed away of liver cancer a few months before the premiere of Rodgers & Hammerstein's play.

Source: GettyImages/GlobalImagesUkraine

Morison replaced Lawrence in the role of Anna Leonowens, a widowed schoolteacher, and given the play's success, she went on tour in a road production with the rest of the cast.

The 103-year-old was very respected in Hollywood, and when she turned 100, in 2015, she hosted a private party at the Pantages Theater to celebrate the occasion with close friends and family.

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