[1] He began his career as a teenager in the theater, first appearing at the Boston Museum in 1875.

He became a star on the Broadway stage, where he spent most of his career.

He appeared in popular plays such as 1909's Is Matrimony a Failure?

He was a character actor in silent films, usually playing gruff fathers or bad guys.

[2] His appearance in Alice Guy's 1917 silent film The Ocean Waif, from Kino DVD, is an example of Morris's surviving screen work.