Robert Morley Biography

Fast Facts

• Attended Wellington College in Berkshire and then the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London
• After taking a bit part in a West End production in 1929, he toured small regional theatres, wrote plays, and sold vacuum cleaners to get by until he returned to the West End in an acclaimed performance as Oscar Wilde
• Quote: "(On selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door) "In those six months I learned more about acting than ever before or since on the stage․""
• Quote: "(On being obese): "My only exercise was winding my watch, but that proved too exhausting, so now I have a self-winding watch․""
• Appeared in Michael Todd's 1956 film adaptation of Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days" and in the 1989 remake
• Became the spokesman for British Airways in a long-running series of American TV commercials in the 1970s and early 1980s
• Wrote and appeared in "Edward, My Son," a play that became a movie starring Spencer Tracy and Deborah Kerr in 1948