Joe Morton’s career spans over forty years. He has appeared in over 200 movies and episodic television shows, and over 50 stage productions.
Film audiences perhaps best know him as The Brother From Another Planet or as the ill-fated scientist, ‘Miles Dyson’, in James Cameron’s Terminator 2 – Judgment Day. Some of his other films include: American Gangster, Ali, Lone Star, City of Hope, Speed, Executive Decision, The Astronaut’s Wife, Paycheck, Blues Brothers 2000, and Gary Sinese’s Of Mice And Men in which he portrayed ‘Crooks.’
Television audiences have enjoyed Mr. Morton’s standout appearances in The X-Files, Law & Order: SVU, House, Boston Legal, and a recurring role on Smallville. He has turned in noteworthy performances as ‘Malcolm X’ in Ali: An American Hero, and the award-winning cable feature Miss Evers’ Boys. Most recently, Mr. Morton was seen as Daniel Golden on NBC’s The Good Wife, and has just concluded five seasons of Eureka as ‘Henry Deacon’ on the Syfy channel.
Mr. Morton made his Broadway debut in Hair and was nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of ‘Walter Lee Younger’ in Raisin. Included in his many theatre credits: ‘Serge’ in the hit play Art on Broadway and London’s West End, with Judd Hirsch and George Wendt, and ‘Colin Powell’ at the National Theatre in London in the critically acclaimed Stuff Happens by David Hare.
Mr. Morton also directs for the stage, film and television. He has directed Athol Fugard’s Sizwe Bansi for Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, for the Public Theatre, Heliotrope Bouquet for Playwright’s Horizon in New York City, by Eric Overmeyer, about the last days of Scott Joplin, and History of the Word, an original play written by Ben Snyder, for the Vineyard Theatre, also in New York City. His film credits as a director include three episodes of Eureka, an episode of Tribeca, and an independent feature entitled Sunday on the Rocks.
He is working with The Public Theater in New York City on an adaptation of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, and, independently, on a biopic entitled The Black Swallow, based on Eugene Jacques Bullard, the first black combat aviator. He is also developing a “hip-hopera” of Athol Fugard’s Tsotsi, and Love In Vain, a blues piece on the life of Robert Johnson.
Additionally, Mr. Morton has written and performed songs for film and television, including Eureka, Badland, Lifelines, and The Mulberry Tree.
Currently, Mr. Morton is co-producing a feature film with writer/director Francesco Lucente (Badland), titled, Starbright, and is in development on a television pilot XtremeChef with South African Chef, Mark Farmer.