Owen Morris (1719-1809) made his debut with the American Company of Lewis Hallam Jr. in 1759. Morris specialized in comic old men, including Oliver Surface and Polonius before retiring from the stage in 1790. The Hallam players performed in the warehouse owned by William Plumstead in King or Water Street, between Pine and Lombard Streets, and here they opened April 15, 1754, with Rowe's tragedy "The Fair Penitent" and "Miss in Her Teens" as the after-piece.
In 1763, Morris and the first Mrs. Morris went with the company to Rhode Island, where they performed Otello:
"Mr. MORRIS will represent an old gentleman, the father of Desdemona, who is not cruel or covetous, but is foolish enough to dislike the noble Moor, his son-in-law, because his face is not white, forgetting that we all spring from one root. Such prejudices are very numerous and very wrong."
Fathers beware what sense and love ye lack,
'Tis crime, not color, makes the being black.
Mrs. MORRIS will represent a young and virtuous wife, who, being wrongfully suspected, gets smothered (in an adjoining room) by her husband.
Reader, attend; and ere thou goest hence
Let fall a tear to hapless innocence. "
The first Mrs. Owen Morris (d. 1767) was America's earliest Ophelia, and, excluding a performance by British troops during the Revolutionary War, the earliest Lady Teazle.
The second Mrs. Owen Morris (1753–1826) was a strikingly tall woman whose acting ability divided the chroniclers of her time. Nevertheless she proved a popular comedienne with the public, much admired for her Lady Teazle and her Beatrice, as well as her Ophelia. Her eccentricities were notorious, and she went to absurd lengths not to expose herself to daylight. Following the advent of Mrs. Merry, her popularity waned rapidly.
Owen Morris is buried in St. Peter's Churchyard
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