David Cedric Morris was an English painter and actor who is perhaps best known for his role as Grandpa George in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 2005 film adaptation of the 1964 book of the same name by Roald Dahl. The film was directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket and Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka...

(2005). He made his debut as a professional actor at the age of 79.

Morris was born in Folkestone

Folkestone

Folkestone is the principal town in the Shepway District of Kent, England. Its original site was in a valley in the sea cliffs and it developed through fishing and its closeness to the Continent as a landing place and trading port. The coming of the railways, the building of a ferry port, and its...

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. He won a choral scholarship to Magdalen College School, Oxford

Magdalen College School, Oxford

Magdalen College School is an independent school for boys aged 7 to 18 and girls in the sixth form, located on The Plain in Oxford, England. It was founded as part of Magdalen College, Oxford by William Waynflete in 1480....

, at the age of nine. He went on to read English at Magdalen College

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

 at the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

. His tutor was C. S. Lewis

C. S. Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...

.

During World War II, his brother was killed in North Africa. That and his own experiences serving in the war led Morris to become a peace activist. He later became an active member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...

 and helped organize the first Artists for Peace exhibition in the 1980s.

After the war, Morris decided to become an artist, and he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts

École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...

. Some of his portraits and landscapes were exhibited by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters

Royal Society of Portrait Painters

The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a British association of portrait painters which holds an annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London...

 and the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

, and two of his murals depicting views from Waterloo Bridge

Waterloo Bridge

Waterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, England between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. The name of the bridge is in memory of the British victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815...

 are displayed at St. John's Church, Waterloo Road, London

Waterloo Road, London

Waterloo Road is a road straddling Lambeth and Southwark, London, England. It runs between Westminster Bridge Road close to St George's Circus at the south-east end and Waterloo Bridge across the River Thames towards London's West End district at the north-west end.At the northern end near the...

. He taught art for 20 years in the Royal Academy Schools and lectured at various other schools in London, Oxford and Brighton.

Morris was an amateur actor who staged Shakespeare productions in a converted barn called the "Bottom Theatre" at his home in Roughwood, Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

. In 2004, he was recommended for a role in the TV mystery series Jonathan Creek

Jonathan Creek

Jonathan Creek is a British mystery series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. Primarily a crime drama, the show is also peppered with broadly comic touches...

 by his friend, director Sandy Johnson

Sandy Johnson (director)

Sandy Johnson is a British director who has directed episodes of The Comic Strip Presents, Inspector Morse, A Touch of Frost, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Jonathan Creek and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. His first full length film was Coast to Coast written by Stan Hey and starring John Shea, Lenny Henry...

. He went on to appear in the TV movie When I'm 64 and the comedy series Little Britain

Little Britain

Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...

and Saxondale

Saxondale

Saxondale is a British television situation comedy programme, starring Steve Coogan and co-written by Steve Coogan and Neil Maclennan. The series is directed by Matt Lipsey and produced by Ted Dowd. Coogan and Henry Normal served as executive producers...

. He was cast as Grandpa George in Tim Burton

Tim Burton

Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...

's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 2005 film adaptation of the 1964 book of the same name by Roald Dahl. The film was directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket and Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka...

.

He married Olwen Goodwin, a pianist, in 1957 and they had four children: Sarah, Martin, Stephen and Anna. Morris died 29 October 2007 from a heart attack, aged 83.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Jonathan Creek Jonathan Creek Jonathan Creek is a British mystery series produced by the BBC and written by David Renwick. Primarily a crime drama, the show is also peppered with broadly comic touches...	Leo Laughton-Jones	Series 4, Episode 6: "Gorgons Wood"
2004	When I'm 64	George	TV movie
2004	Little Britain Little Britain Little Britain is a British character-based comedy sketch show which was first broadcast on BBC radio and then turned into a television show. It was written by comic duo David Walliams and Matt Lucas...	Welsh postman	Series 2, Episode 1; Series 2, Episode 6
2005	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 2005 film adaptation of the 1964 book of the same name by Roald Dahl. The film was directed by Tim Burton. The film stars Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket and Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka...	Grandpa George
2005	A Very Social Secretary
2005	Saxondale Saxondale Saxondale is a British television situation comedy programme, starring Steve Coogan and co-written by Steve Coogan and Neil Maclennan. The series is directed by Matt Lipsey and produced by Ted Dowd. Coogan and Henry Normal served as executive producers...	Old Interviewee	Series 1, Episode 1
2007	Flick Flick (film) Flick is a campy British horror film written and directed by David Howard, and starring Hugh O'Conor and Faye Dunaway. It had its theatrical release in 2008, and the DVD of the film was released in the United Kingdom on 19 October 2009...	Father Carmichael

External Links

David Morris at the Internet Movie Database

Internet Movie Database

Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...