Robert Michael Morris started acting after a 25-year teaching career
Robert Michael Morris, the actor who played a flamboyant gay hairdresser on HBO’s The Comeback for two seasons, has died.
He was 77.
Morris was a standout on the comedy starring Lisa Kudrow who tweeted on Tuesday (30 May) that the actor was ‘an example of what a truly good soul looks like.’
Morris played the role of Mickey Deane during the show’s first season in 2005 then again in 2014 when the show – which had become a cult favorite – was revived for a second season.
In all, 21 episodes of the show were made.
Mickey was the personal hairdresser and buddy of Kudrow’s self-absorbed TV star Valerie Cherish.
‘Mickey was just a human being and he didn’t think of himself as gay,’ Morris told the Dallas Voice in 2015.
‘Now anybody with half a brain — or Stevie Wonder, who can’t see — knew he was flittin’ around. But he was just being him, so he couldn’t imagine why [anyone] would think that he was gay.’
But Mickey did eventually formally come out in a big way by kissing his boyfriend in television.
‘I think there’s a kind of freedom in him, but you’ll notice he doesn’t noticeably change,’ the actor said.
‘He doesn’t start wearing loud colors. I mean, he really likes jewelry, but what’s wrong with a little personal adornment?’
Morris came to acting later in life although he had long been a playwright and spent 25 years as a college English and Drama teacher.
Besides The Comeback, he made guest appearances on Will & Grace, Arrested Development, The Middle, Brothers & Sisters and How I Met Your Mother.
He also had a recurring role on the 2010-11 comedy Running Wilde in the role of Will Arnett’s nanny.
