Morris Carnovsky; Acted in Modern, Classic Roles

Morris Carnovsky, the craggy-faced classical character actor who late in his lengthy career mastered Shakespeare after having prevailed over a congressional blacklist, has died at the age of 94.

A spokesman for his family said he died Tuesday at his home in Easton, Conn., of the complications of age.

Carnovsky was a veteran of such contemporary dramas as George Bernard Shaw’s “St. Joan” and Clifford Odets’ “Golden Boy” when--at 60--he turned to Shakespearean plays.

He had been recruited in 1956 by John Houseman for the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Conn., and later starred in several Shakespearean productions on Broadway.

His roles included the Earl of Salisbury in “King John,” the provost in “Measure for Measure,” Gremio in “The Taming of the Shrew,” Shylock in “The Merchant of Venice,” and the title role in “King Lear.”

In 1957 he played Shylock opposite Katharine Hepburn as Portia. He considered that role the culmination of his lengthy career. A critic for the Boston Advertiser said his performance was “rich in understanding, proud to the very end and infinitely moving.”

The son of a grocer who often took him to the neighborhood Yiddish theaters in his native St. Louis, Carnovsky made his acting debut at 17 in a high school production of “Disraeli.” He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and moved to Boston, where he was accepted into the Henry Jewitt Players.

He joined the Theater Guild in New York City and had featured roles in “The Brothers Karamazov,” “Marco Millions” and the title role in Anton Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya.”

He helped found the Group Theater in 1931 and went to Hollywood after the stage company disbanded.

There he played Anatole France in the 1937 film “The Life of Emile Zola” and George Gershwin’s father in the 1945 film “Rhapsody in Blue.” He also appeared in the movies “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “A View From the Bridge.”

Carnovsky was blessed with a rich operatic voice and the ability to give meaning and drama to the most casual words.

“I began by adoring words,” he said of his early career when interviewed by the Boston Herald Traveler in 1970. “I’ve learned to use them for all their juiciness and malleability. . . .”

That interview came two decades after he and other members of the Group Theater were named by the House Un-American Activities Committee as members of a Communist-front group. He took the witness stand but refused to answer questions or reveal names.

“There is no force in government which can compel a citizen to reveal his political, religious or social affiliations,” he told the committee in 1951.

After that he was unable to find work in Hollywood and returned to New York, where in 1953 he began a two-year run in “The World of Sholem Aleichem,” off-Broadway. The show was seen on national television in 1960.

In 1969 he teamed with director Tyrone Guthrie in a highly acclaimed, 33-city tour of “Lamp at Midnight,” a drama about Galileo.

Carnovsky is survived by his wife, Phoebe, a son and two sisters.