Morton Downey, Jr.
| Morton Downey Jr. | |
|---|---|
Morton Downey Jr.
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| Born |
Sean Morton Downey December 9, 1932 Los Angeles, California |
| Died | March 12, 2001 (aged 68) Los Angeles, California |
| Cause of death | Lung cancer |
| Occupation | Talk show host, singer, actor, disc jockey |
| Website | mortondowneyjrhome |
Sean Morton Downey (December 9, 1932 – March 12, 2001), known more commonly by his stage name Morton Downey Jr., was an American singer, songwriter and later a television talk show host of the late 1980s who pioneered the "trash TV" format on his program The Morton Downey Jr. Show.
The film company Ironbound Films produced a documentary film about Downey titled Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie, which premiered April 19, 2012, at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival.
Downey's parents were also in show business; his father, Morton Downey, was a popular singer, and his mother, Barbara Bennett, was a singer and dancer. Downey did not use his legal first name (Sean) in his stage name. His aunts included Hollywood film stars Constance and Joan Bennett, from whom he was estranged, and his maternal grandfather was the celebrated matinée idol Richard Bennett. Born into a life of luxury, he was raised during the summers next door to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Downey attended New York University.
He was a program director and announcer at radio station WPOP in Hartford, Connecticut in the 1950s. He went on to work as a disc jockey, sometimes using the moniker "Doc" Downey, in various markets around the U.S., including Phoenix (KRIZ), Miami (WFUN), Kansas City (KUDL), San Diego (KDEO) and Seattle (KJR). Like his father, Downey pursued a career in music, recording in both pop and country styles. He sang on a few records and then began to write songs, several of which were popular in the 1950s and 1960s. He joined ASCAP as a result. In 1958, he recorded "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams", which he sang on national television on a set that resembled a dark street with one street light. In 1981, "Green Eyed Girl" charted on the Billboard Magazine country chart, peaking at #95.
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