Education
University of Iowa.
University of Iowa.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Morris served in the United States Army during the Korean War. Morris began his acting career in the 1960s making guest appearances on many television shows such as The Twilight Zone, Branded and Ben Casey. In 1966, he was cast in his most recognizable role as the electronics expert Barney Collier in the television series Mission: Impossible.
Morris, Peter Lupus, and Bob Johnson were the only actors to remain with the series throughout its entire run.
While in college, Morris was active in theater and hosted the late afternoon Jazz radio show, "Tea-Time", on the University of Iowa station, WSUI. He co-produced concerts at the university with a student friend. After Iowa, Greg"s first professional stage role was in The of Bessie Smith.
One of his earliest television roles was a cameo appearance on The Dick Van Dyke Show in the episode "That"s My Boy?", where Rob becomes convinced that they"ve taken home the wrong baby from the hospital. The revelation of Morris" character as the other child"s father prompted a record setting bout of laughter from the studio audience.
In the 1963–1964 season, he appeared on American Broadcasting Company"s drama about college life, Channing, starring Jason Evers and Henry Jones.
After Mission: Impossible was cancelled, Morris appeared in movies and made guest television appearances (1974 - The Six Million Dollar Manitoba - Episode 1-05 "Little Orphan Airplane") before he was cast as Lieutenant David Nelson during the second season of the television series Vega$. He also appeared in two episodes of the television series What"s Happening!! as Lawrence Nelson (father of Dwayne) and in three episodes of The Jeffersons, in which he reprised his role of an electronics expert (although not as Barney Collier) in a comparison sequel of the Mission: Impossible series.
Morris was also a frequent guest star on Password and Password Plus in the 1960s and 1970s.
Morris died on August 27, 1996 of brain cancer in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was 62 years old. Shortly before his death, he went to see the film version of Mission: Impossible that starred Tom Cruise.
The reports were that he disliked the movie so much (an opinion that was shared by most of his former co-stars) that he left the theater early. According to the Associated Press, he said of the movie: "lieutenant"s an abomination.".