R.I.P. Robert Morse, Broadway and Mad Men star

Robert Morse, the Tony-winning Broadway star of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying who got a late-career boost thanks to his role as Bertram Cooper on AMC’s Mad Men, has died. Morse’s death was confirmed by his friend producer Larry Karaszewski (via Variety), who referred to him as a “huge talent and a beautiful spirit.” Morse was 90.

Born in Massachusetts in 1931, Morse wanted to be an actor from a young age and moved to New York City after graduating high school. He studied acting with his brother at the Neighborhood Playhouse and got his first onstage acting role in a 1949 production of Our Town. He made it to Broadway in 1955, appearing in Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker—the play that would later be adapted into the musical Hello, Dolly!—and his first properly credited movie role was in the 1958 film adaptation of the play.

Morse got his first Tony nomination a year after that, for Best Featured Actor In A Play, for his work in the comedy Say, Darling. He was also nominated the year after that for Take Me Along, and in 1962 he won the Best Actor In A Musical award for How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. The musical, which is about a window washer with grander career aspirations, originally ran on Broadway for four years and got a movie adaptation in 1967.