Biography
Howard Morris (1919–2005) was an American actor, comedian, director and voice artist. Born in the Bronx, New York, he began his career on the stage and gained early prominence as a performer on Sid Caesar's Your Show of Shows in the 1950s.
He is best known for playing the rock-throwing hillbilly Ernest T. Bass in eight episodes of The Andy Griffith Show (1963–1965) and reprising the role in the 1986 television film Return to Mayberry. Morris appeared in numerous films, including as Mr. Elmer Kelp in The Nutty Professor (1963) and Dr. Zidell in Splash (1984). He provided voices for many animated productions, notably Gopher in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) and numerous characters in The Flintstones and other Hanna-Barbera series. Morris also directed feature films such as Who's Minding the Mint? (1967) and With Six You Get Eggroll (1968).
