His friend, screenwriter Larry Karaszewski, and Morse’s son Charlie confirmed his death on twitter and to the CNN subsidiary KABC.
A popular stage actor with two Tony Awards and a handful of Emmy nominations (plus one win), Morse’s career spanned 60 years.
Morse, who had appeared on Broadway since the mid-1950s, created the role of the enterprising J. Pierrepont Finch in 1961’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and won a Tony Award for his performance. He reprized the role in the 1967 film adaptation.
Morse has guest-starred and voiced on dozens of shows, from Fantasy Island to American Crime Story: The People v. OJ Simpson”. But his most famous TV role came with the acclaimed series Mad Men. As the wacky but wily, bow-tie-clad ad executive Bertram “Bert” Cooper, Morse has been nominated for multiple Emmy Awards.
In the show’s final season, Jon Hamm’s Don Draper hallucinated Morse as Cooper, who performed the 1920s show tune “The Best Things in Life Are Free” on the show after Cooper’s death Scene that recirculates after news of Morse’s death. Morse, who billed himself as a “musical comedian,” rejoiced at the opportunity to perform a musical number on the series — complete with dancers dressed as contemporary office workers,” he told Time in 2015.
Still, performing on stage held a special meaning for Morse, who last appeared on Broadway in a 2016 revival of The Front Page.
“I love going to the theater early and walking onstage with that one light,” he told the New York Times in 1989, about to win his Tony Award-winning performance as Truman Capote in a straight-A debut -man show. “I find the center of the stage, I find my center and I feel like I belong. This is my happiest moment.”