Born in Helena, Montana, Morton is best known to modern audiences as the hapless soul whose toupée was often removed at the most inopportune times.

Perhaps the best known example of this embarrassment is in the Three Stooges film Disorder in the Court, in which Larry Fine's violin bow yanks Morton's hairpiece off.

The Stooges then misinterpret the toupée as a wild tarantula, leading Moe Howard to grab a pistol from a court bailiff and shoot it.

Morton also appeared as the bartender who provides Oliver Hardy with a wooden mallet to shut up Stan Laurel singing "The Trail of the Lonesome Pine" in the film Way Out West.

Approaching 50 he performed a difficult backwards fall and lifted himself into a headstand using only his neck muscles for the Pitts and Todd 1932 short The Soilers, directed by George Marshall.