---
name: "Morris Carnovsky"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/morris-carnovsky"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "4 September 1897"
died: "1 September 1992"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-19T23:28:58.785794+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Morris Carnovsky

Actor. Born 4 September 1897 in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA. Died 1 September 1992.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 4 September 1897, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA
- **Died:** 1 September 1992
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Carnovsky, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3324402, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0138885/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/31977

## Biography

Morris Carnovsky was an American stage and film actor. He studied at Washington University in St. Louis and began his career in Yiddish theatre before moving to New York, where he joined the Theatre Guild and helped found the Group Theatre in 1931.

He appeared in numerous Broadway productions and made his film debut as Anatole France in *The Life of Emile Zola* (1937). Carnovsky featured in films including *Edge of Darkness* (1943), *Dead Reckoning* (1947), *Thieves' Highway* (1949), *Gun Crazy* (1950) and *Cyrano de Bergerac* (1950). He was blacklisted in the 1950s after refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

Later in his career Carnovsky returned to the stage, performing Shakespearean roles at the American Shakespeare Festival. He appeared in *A View from the Bridge* (1962) and *The Gambler* (1974), and was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1979. Carnovsky died in 1992.

*Sources: imdb.com, britannica.com, en.wikipedia.org, nytimes.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *The Life of Emile Zola* (1937), Fi1m 70, as Anatole France — [page](https://film.one/film/the-life-of-emile-zola.md)

## Complete filmography (31)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *American Playhouse* (1982), series, as Boris Mirkin
- *The Gambler* (1974), as A. R. Lowenthal
- *Dig: A Journey Into Earth* (1972), as Earl of Limestone (voice)
- *The Chicago Conspiracy Trial* (1970), Actor
- *An Essay on Death: A Memorial to John F. Kennedy* (1964), as Narrator (voice)
- *A View from the Bridge* (1962), as Mr. Alfieri
- *The World of Sholom Aleichem* (1959), as Aaron Katz / Presiding Angel
- *Medea* (1959), as Creon
- *Cyrano de Bergerac* (1950), as Le Bret
- *The Second Woman* (1950), as Dr. Raymond Hartley
- *Western Pacific Agent* (1950), as Joe 'Pop' Wickens
- *Gun Crazy* (1950), as Judge Willoughby
- *Thieves' Highway* (1949), as Yanko Garcos
- *Siren of Atlantis* (1949), as Le Mesge
- *Man-Eater of Kumaon* (1948), as Ganga Ram
- *Saigon* (1947), as Alex Maris
- *Joe Palooka in the Knockout* (1947), as Howard Abbott
- *Dishonored Lady* (1947), as Dr. Richard Caleb
- *Dead Reckoning* (1946), as Martinelli
- *Miss Susie Slagle's* (1946), as Dr. Fletcher
- *Cornered* (1945), as Manuel Satana
- *Our Vines Have Tender Grapes* (1945), as Bjorn Bjornson
- *Rhapsody in Blue* (1945), as Morris Gershwin
- *The Master Race* (1944), as Old Man Bartoc
- *Address Unknown* (1944), as Max Eisenstein
- *Edge of Darkness* (1943), as Sixtus Andresen
- *The City* (1939), as Narrator (voice)
- *The 400 Million* (1939), as Additional Voice (voice)
- *Tovarich* (1937), as Chauffourier Dubieff
- *The Life of Emile Zola* (1937), as Anatole France — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/film/the-life-of-emile-zola.md)
- *Panther Woman of the Needle Trades, or The Lovely Life of Little Lisa* (1931), as Jehovah

## Gallery

- ![Morris Carnovsky](https://film.one/media/person/1229603/gallery-0aad068a0c2e.jpg) Morris Carnovsky — Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Morris_Carnovsky%2C_1964.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Alan Safier (Gratiano) and Morris Carnovsky (Shylock) in "The Merchant of Venice" in 1973. (2011)](https://film.one/media/person/1229603/gallery-38f62ec292e0.jpg) Alan Safier (Gratiano) and Morris Carnovsky (Shylock) in "The Merchant of Venice" in 1973. (2011) — Alansafe5, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/MerchantofVenice2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/morris-carnovsky