Name Christopher Morley Role Actor | Movies Freebie and the Bean | |
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Christopher Jarman Morley (born 1951) is an American actor who specialized in cross-dressing roles.
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Morley is the older of two sons born to William Jarman Morley II and Audrey Mary Farmer. His paternal family originated in St. Mary's Parish of Nottingham, England but came to America in 1843, settling first in Dillsboro, Indiana and later in Carrollton, Kentucky. His great-grandfather, William Jarman Morley I, moved to Austin, Texas in the 1870s and was a co-founder of Morley Brother's Drug Company. The company invented and patented many popular old remedies and gradually grew to include locations in several states. Morley's parents divorced and he and his brother were raised by their mother and allowed little contact with their father, a prominent veterinarian in El Paso, Texas.
Morley was accepted to UCLA in 1969 with a major in mathematics. Once at UCLA, he changed his major to dance and studied ballet with Mia Slavenska. He also studied ballet with Stanley Holden at the Los Angeles Music Center. He performed with the Santa Monica Ballet at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in their production of The Nutcracker. Later he obtained a license in cosmetology, and worked in Beverly Hills in Vidal Sasoon's hair salon and in Jon Peters' hair salon, on Rodeo Drive.
As an actor and a female impersonator Morley specialized in cross-dressing roles in the 1970s and 1980s. He played numerous parts in television and movies, most known for his parts in Freebie and the Bean (1974) and General Hospital (1980). In General Hospital, Morley played Sally Armitage, owner of a bar and a friend of Laura. The role was played straight and attracted the flirtatious interest of Luke until Morley's character finally revealed he was a man. Once revealed as a male, Morley's character became part of a plot to hold Luke and Laura's lives as ransom, in exchange for hidden gold. After the gold was found, however, his character was killed in a gunfight. The role in General Hospital may have been an inspiration for the film Tootsie, which features a man who gets job as a woman in a TV soap opera set in a hospital.
Morley was featured as a female impersonator in a pictorial article in the May 1975 issue of Playboy magazine, photographed by Mario Casilli.
In the 1980s and 1990s Morley was one of the foremost Marilyn Monroe impressionists, starring at the 'La Cage aux Folles' Dinner Theatre in Los Angeles. Later he toured with their various road shows, An Evening At La Cage, playing Las Vegas, Toronto, Taipei, and Helsinki.