'I'm glad I killed Bobby Ewing'

Press, 12 November 1985, Page 15

'I'm glad I killed Bobby Ewing'

By

JOANNE WILLS

Features International

The actress Morgan Brittany has had an exciting time on television lately. She hit the headlines when, as jilted fiancee Katherine Wentworth, she killed off Bobby Ewing in the cliffhanging Dallas” finale Now, she is starring as Kate Simpson, a jet-setting and internationally successful journalist, in a new series, “Glitter.”

Although Morgan Brittany enjoys her own TV series, she admits that she is already missing “Dallas” in many ways. “I loved playing the bitch on Dallas.’ I was so desperate to be the villainess that I could hardly wait to read through the scripts to see what I would be getting up to next

“In fact, it was my burning ambition to become such an evil character that I was determined to out-evil Alexis Carrington and Angela Channing in Dynast/ and “Falcon Crest? “When poor Bobby bit the

dust, I’m afraid I was delighted that I was responsible, even though I got killed in the accident, too!”

Now “Glitter” provides her with a role for which she is even more suited as she had always dreamed of becoming a television news reporter and has a degree in journalism. But that dream was forgotten when a photographer friend .took along some of her photographs to a top modelling agency and she became a leading television model, instead.

Before ‘Dallas” came into her life, she spent almost 20 years trying to convince Hollywood producers that she was capable of radiating evil. “One of my very first acting roles was on television when I was about eight I played a really nasty, depraved child. It was fun to me, even then. “But after that, I was cast so often as the goodygoody that by the time I was 14, I’d been typecast as the clean-cut fresh-faced Miss Innocence.

“Then, about 10 years ago, those sort of looks and that type of image became unfashionable.

“My career took a real nose-dive, which was why I went to university to take a degree in journalism.

“I might have quit acting altogether if I hadn’t been so successful making TV commercials.

“Although the movie guys didn’t want fresh-faced girls any more, the network sponsors knew there was nothing better for selling their products!”

Although Morgan Brittany turned down an offer to take over from Kate Jackson in the “Charlie’s Angels” series, she believes that that series did her

career a great deal of good. “I was tempted to take the role, but I decided the image lacked any measure

of intelligence. But at least ‘Charlie’s Angels’ launched a revival in wholesome, attractive television stars. “It helped me get back into acting — for that I was

grateful” Away from the television studios her lifestyle could not be more different from Kate Simpson’s or Katherine Wentworth’s.

She enjoys a quiet life, far from the spotlight and the swinging social scene, as the wife of a top Hollywood stuntman, Jack Gill “We married after such a whirlwind courtship, we didn’t even have the time to enjoy a honeymoon,” she says. ‘"The moment we were married we had to go our separate ways. Jack bad arranged to work on “The Fall Gu/ series in California, and suddenly I was called to an audition in Dallas.

“I wasn’t very pleased about it and I tried to talk the studio bosses into postponing it for a week or two. But they refused. I was told either turn up to please them — or forget it “I was so furious about the ultimatum that I was spitting with anger when I arrived at the studio.

“It was an audition for the part of Katherine Wentworth and I was told later that I arrived in such a vile temper they were tempted to sign me up immediately. “The angry gleam in my eyes was the pure, unadulterated bitchiness that they wanted!”