After leaving school in 1932, he began working in the film industry at Wembley Studios as an unpaid gofer for Michael Powell, among others, eventually graduating to the positions of clapper boy and camera assistant on quota quickies.
[2][6][7] After his war service, Morris worked at Pinewood Studios as an assistant to such people as Ronald Neame and David Lean at their company, Cineguild.
"[1] Morris collaborated with director John Huston on eight films, beginning with Moulin Rouge (1952) and also including Moby Dick (1956).
Although his previous experience with Technicolor had been limited, Morris devised many stylish effects for Moulin Rouge by employing diffused and filtered light, fog and bold color choices, and his innovations drew critical praise.
For Moby Dick, Morris developed what David Peloquin has called a "retro-silvered pictorial" that "was designed to capture the look of nineteenth-century whaling prints with their muted colors and silver sheen.
[9] As cinematographer for John Osborne's The Entertainer (1960), his name was incorporated into the story in a scene in which a radio transmission mentions the fictional Sergeant Ossie Morris.
[11] In 1966, Morris married Lee Turner, a member of the continuity production staff on the Franco Zeffirelli film of The Taming of the Shrew (1967).