Not merely the second husband of redhead comedian Lucille Ball (after she divorced Desi Arnaz), Morton was a talented comic in his own right, working as a stand-up entertainer at nightclubs in New York, Miami, Chicago, Las Vegas and the “Borscht Belt”.
Lucy (who died in 1989) brought him to Hollywood and he had another full career in television, not only as an actor but also as executive producer and audience warm-up comedian of her post-I Love Lucy shows: The Lucy Show (1962-1968), Here’s Lucy (1968-1974) and the brief Life With Lucy (1986). Morton died March 30 in Rancho Mirage, Calif., from lung cancer.