The Secret Identity of TV’s Morris the Cat
During the seventies and eighties, there was perhaps no animal TV star more frequently seen than that most finicky of felines, Morris the Cat. But did you know that the sardonic voice behind Morris also belonged to one of TV’s most heroic characters?
The cat who played the original Morris was initially known as Lucky before he was whisked away from an animal shelter in Hinsdale, Illinois. The staff there had noticed that Lucky was pretty darn charming and contacted animal trainer Bob Martwick, who instantly recognized him as the “Clark Gable of Cats.”
From 1969 to 1978, Lucky, who was now known, on-screen and off, as Morris, completed 58 commercials with the voiceover of John Erwin, creating one of the most successful and memorable advertising campaigns in TV history. In fact, by the mid-seventies, he had become more than just a cat in commercials; Morris was a true pop culture phenomenon.
You know how they say all good things come to an end? Well, that certainly is true here. Morris lost the last of his nine lives on July 7, 1978. Over the course of the next week or so, obituaries for Morris appeared in many of the major U.S. news publications. But then, after the appropriate amount of grieving, the fine folks at Nine Lives began searching for a new Morris, vowing that, just like Lucky, they would again find him in an animal shelter.
I truly think it is noble that Del Monte Foods, the parent company of 9Lives, used Morris’s fame to bring awareness to the plight of cats and kittens in animal shelters everywhere. Even Morris himself is willing to give credit where credit is due. Here’s what he says on the 9Lives official website: “With help from the 9Lives team, I promote cat adoption and make it easy for humans to give cats a comfortable life with plenty of tasty and nutritious food.”
As mentioned earlier, actor John Erwin, the voice of Morris, was also the voice of a certain TV character whose heroic adventures thrilled kids of all ages during the eighties. Who am I talking about? Well, he actually voiced two characters: Prince Adam, and the hero that he transformed into in times of need. Yep, good old He-Man.
If you watched TV at all during the eighties, then it’s likely you remember Prince Adam raising his sword to the sky and saying, “By the power of Grayskull!” and magically transforming into that muscle-bound protector of the planet Eternia. It’s also probably worth mentioning that much like Morris the Cat, He-Man was also really just a long-form TV commercial that was created to sell Mattel action figures to kids.
So, what do we know about John Erwin? Before he was the voice of Morris, John was an aspiring actor who was a recurring character on the classic TV Western Rawhide, which ran from 1959 to 1965. After that, John discovered his true calling as a voice actor, where he gave life to the character of Reggie Mantle on a bunch of different Archie cartoons for the next decade or so. It’s interesting that much of John’s career has been playing just four main characters: Teddy in Rawhide, Reggie Mantle, Morris the Cat, and of course, He-Man.
John passed away last December. There is a video on YouTube where Alan Oppenheimer, voice of the villainous Skeletor, talks about his friend John Erwin. According to Alan, John lived a really quiet life in a retirement home in Thousand Oaks, California. He’d been asked to attend various Comic-Cons and other events, but he would always politely decline, saying that no one really wanted to hear an old man such as himself speak. How mistaken you were, John!
Prior to his passing, John was highlighted on X.com by The Voice Artist’s Spotlight. It was that post that got me thinking about John Erwin and his significant contributions to the world of pop culture. If not for his efforts, it is highly unlikely that Morris the Cat would have ever been seen as a viable candidate for President of the United States back in the late eighties. Looking at the last few elections, I’m starting to think that Morris wouldn’t have been all that bad.
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