David Morse

David Morse (birthname: David Bowditch Morse) is a widely respected and durable veteran actor with credits spanning over four decades, perhaps best known as Dr. Morrison on the seminal TV series, St. Elsewhere (1982-1988), but with a long feature film record with movies directed by Lars von Trier, Kathryn Bigelow, Terry Gilliam, Robert Zemeckis, Michael Cimino, Michael Bay, and Sean Penn, among many others.

After being devoted to the theater in the 1970s (but also with a notable theater record spanning the 1980s, 1990s, and more recently with two Tony nominations for his performances in the 2018 Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh and the 2022 Broadway revival of Paula Vogel’s How I Learned to Drive), Morse made his big-screen debut in Inside Moves (1980), directed by Richard Donner and co-starring John Savage and Diana Scarwid.

Morse was cast in a supporting role by filmmaker Michael Cimino in the neo-noir thriller, Desperate Hours (1990), starring Mickey Rourke, Anthony Hopkins, Mimi Rogers, Lindsay Crouse, Kelly Lynch, and Elias Koteas, and was a remake of the same-titled 1955 movie. Director-writer Sean Penn gave David Morse his first lead movie role in The Indian Runner (1991), with Viggo Mortensen, Valeria Golino, Patricia Arquette, Dennis Hopper, Sandy Dennis, and Charles Bronson, but which lost money for distributors MGM and Columbia Tri-Star.

Morse co-starred in the first studio movie in his credits that made a profit ($60.6 million global gross), 20^th Century Fox’s The Good Son (1993), written by acclaimed British novelist Ian McEwan, and co-starring Macauley Culkin, Elijah Wood, and Wendy Crewson. Morse nabbed a supporting role in the Walter Hill-written remake of Sam Peckinpah’s crime thriller, The Getaway (1994), starring Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, Michael Madsen, Jennifer Tilly, Richard Farnsworth, and James Woods, and grossing $30 million for producers David Foster and Lawrence Turman, and Universal Pictures/Largo International.

Morse reunited with director/writer/producer Penn and won a Best Supporting Male nomination from the Independent Spirit Awards for his work in The Crossing Guard (1995), starring Jack Nicholson, Robin Wright, and Anjelica Huston, but grossed only $7 million for Miramax Films. Filmmaker Terry Gilliam cast David Morse in a supporting role in his highly engaging dystopian brain-twister, 12 Monkeys (1995), starring Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt (Oscar-nominated), and Christopher Plummer, and earning a strong $169 million global gross (on a $29 million budget).

Morse joined the brawny ensemble of Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Ed Harris, Michael Biehn, and William Forsythe for the Michael Bay-directed action hit ($335.6 million gross), The Rock (1996), followed by Morse cast in a lead support role opposite Gene Hackman and Hugh Grant in the Michael Apted-directed thriller for Sony-Columbia Pictures, Extreme Measures (1996), as well as in director-producer Renny Harlin’s $95-million-grossing thriller, The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), written by Shane Black and co-starring Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson.

Morse continued to be cast in high-profile Hollywood projects with his role in Contact (1997), producer-director Robert Zemeckis’ $171-million-grossing sci-fact drama for Warner Bros. co-starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. David Morse reunited with Jackson for the F. Gary Gray-directed thriller, The Negotiator (1998), co-starring Kevin Spacey, earning $88 million worldwide, and then played major support to star Melanie Griffith in the Antonio Banderas-directed comedy-drama, Crazy in Alabama (1999).

Morse earned a SAG award nomination as part of the cast of Frank Darabont’s Stephen King adaptation starring Tom Hanks, The Green Mile (1999), and then co-starred with Jamie Foxx in the Antoine Fuqua-directed action comedy, Bait (2000), followed by his major role under Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier’s direction in the adventurous musical drama, Dancer in the Dark (2000), starring Björk, Catherine Deneuve, Peter Stormare, and Joel Grey, and premiered at the Cannes film festival, where it won the Palme d’Or and best actress for Björk.

Morse played major support in yet another Warner Bros. thriller, director-producer Taylor Hackford’s Proof of Life (2000), opposite Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe, followed by another Warners drama, Hearts in Atlanta (2001), starring Anthony Hopkins and Anton Yelchin, and directed by Scott Hicks. Morse co-starred with Ryan Gosling in the ultra-low-budget indie sports drama and Sundance premiere from writers-directors Alex Smith and Andrew J. Smith, The Slaughter Rule (2002), followed by Morse earning a Golden Horse Festival best-supporting actor nomination for his turn in Taiwanese director/writer/producer Chen Kuo-fu’s Taiwan-Hong Kong action movie, Double Vision (2002), which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard competition.

David Morse co-starred in another Un Certain Regard-premiering movie with American indie filmmaker David Jacobson’s neo-Western, Down in the Valley (2005), starring Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood. Then Morse co-starred with Gregory Smith and Jordana Brewster in another American indie, Nearing Grace (2005), just before Norse was cast in DreamWorks Pictures’ sports drama, Dreamer (2005), starring Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, and Kris Kristofferson, grossing $39.5 million.

Morse joined Bruce Willis and Mos Def as co-stars of the Richard Donner-directed thriller, 16 Blocks (2006); then Morse reunited with Fanning for the commercially-failed indie drama from filmmaker Deborah Kampmeier, Hounddog (2007), with Piper Laurie and Robin Wright; Morse co-starred in a far more successful drama, DreamWorks’ and Paramount’s Disturbia (2007), with Shia LaBeouf and Carrie-Anne Moss, earning a strong $118 million box office.

After co-starring with Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, Andre Braugher, and Dianne Wiest in the Rodrigo Garcia-directed mystery, Passengers (2008), Morse was part of the ensemble of Kathryn Bigelow’s Best Picture winner (along with five other Oscars), The Hurt Locker (2008), whose cast of Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Evangeline Lilly, Ralph Fiennes, and Guy Pearce won the best ensemble cast prize in the Gotham Independent Film Awards.

David Morse’s bill of 2010 film roles included his second turn with filmmaker Garcia in the Toronto festival-premiering Mother and Child, with Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, Kerry Washington, Jimmy Smits, and Samuel L. Jackson as well as a supporting role with John Cusack, Gong Li, Chow Yun in the Weinstein Company-released political thriller, Shanghai (which failed at the box office after a five-year-delayed release in 2015).

Morse co-starred with filmmaker/star Martin Donovan in his drama, Collaborator (2011), winning Morse the best actor prize at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, and then Morse played support in Disney’s fantasy comedy-drama, The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012), with Joel Edgerton, Wiest, and Common, and grossing $56 million globally, followed by Morse joining the ensemble of co-writer-director Nick Cassavetes’ drama, Yellow (2012), with Heather Wahlquist, Riley Keough, Sienna Miller, Ray Liotta, and Melanie Griffith.

Morse was part of the cast of Alexandre Aja’s fantasy-horror movie, Horns (2013), starring Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, Kathleen Quinlan, and Heather Graham, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, followed by Morse’s first movie as star and producer, McCanick (2013), directed and co-produced by Josh C. Waller, and released by Eagle Films.

Morse joined the cast led by star-producer Brad Pitt in the Marc Forster-directed zombie epic, World War Z (2013), with Mireille Enos, James Badge Dale, Matthew Fox, and Ruth Negga, and which grossed a strong $540.5 million for the nearly $200-million-budgeted production. Morse joined the mainly Native American cast in a reunion with Alex and Andrew J. Smith for their Sherman Alexie-produced adaptation of James Welch’s Winter in the Blood (2013), with castmates including Lily Gladstone and Gary Farmer, and then collaborated with co-writer/director Craig Macneill for his horror movie, The Boy (2015), with Jared Breeze and Rainn Wilson, and which premiered at the South by Southwest film festival.

Morse was part of the large ensemble under writer Peter Landesman’s direction in Concussion (2015), starring Will Smith, Alec Baldwin, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Arliss Howard, Paul Reiser, Luke Wilson, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Albert Brooks, receiving a mixed reception after its AFI Fest premiere. David Morse played opposite both Anjelica Huston and Bill Pullman in writer-director Theresa Rebeck’s indie movie, Trouble (2017), with Julia Stiles and Brian d’Arcy James, and then jumped into the war drama based on David Finkel’s non-fiction Iraq war chronicle, Thank You for Your Service (2017), directed and written by Jason Hall and featuring Miles Teller, Haley Bennett, and Amy Schumer, and released by Universal Pictures.

Morse appeared in the cast of director-producer Nick Stagliano’s crime drama for Lionsgate, The Virtuoso (2021), starring Anson Mount, Abbie Cornish, Anthony Hopkins, and Eddie Marsan, and followed this with a supporting turn in co-filmmakers Aristotelis Maragkos’ and Tom Holland’s live-action/animation amalgam of Stephen King’s The Langoliers, The Timekeepers of Eternity (2021), followed by Morse landing a key role in the drama, Cabrini (2024), directed by co-writer Alejandro Monteverde and co-starring Cristiana Dell’Anna and John Lithgow.

Morse starred in the border drama co-written and directed by Joseph T. Walker, La Gloria (date to be announced), with Jaklyn Bejarano and Bill Heck, and followed this up with the international drama, Blood Knot (date to be announced), starring the father-and-son team of Michael and Cameron Douglas, and released by Screen Media.