In the 80`s there were two people the world loved to hate, one naturally was JR Ewing and the other was undoubtedly queen of mean Katherine Wentworth, half sister of Pamela Ewing.Played by the wonderful and talented Morgan Brittany. So it was a pleasure to be given the opportunity to talk with the one time child actress who wrecked havoc for the Ewings.

Thank you to everyone who put forward questions to Morgan.

Interviewer : You started off acting at the age of 5 in a series called Sea Hunt. Can you tell us how you got into show business? Did you come from an acting background?

Morgan: well actually not really. My mother had been a country and western singer but when she moved out to Hollywood found it very difficult to get work so when I was born they put me into dance classes and singing classes as soon as I could walk actually. I was in a dancing school and a gentleman saw me and wanted to put me in a commercial so one thing led to another. Back in those days probably mid 50`s, there were not that many child actors so I started working pretty much right away.

Interviewer: so your first movie was in 1962 playing baby June in Gypsy with Natalie Wood. That must have been quite an amazing time.

Morgan : it was absolutely amazing. The most wonderful thing about that film was that I was working in one of the last great Hollywood musicals and it was wonderful because it was all of the old timers, the old wardrobe people, everything was still like it was in the 30`s and 40`s . So I was very fortunate to be able to be a part of that

Interviewer: I read that Natalie Wood was your favorite actress.

Morgan : Oh yes .between Natalie Wood and Vivien Leigh

Interviewer: yes because you played the part of Vivien Leigh in several movies.

Morgan : There were three of them. Day of the Locust done in the 70`s, then there was Gable and Lombard and following that was the mini series moviola and moviola was called the search for Scarlett O'Hara and it was that which brought me to the attention of the Dallas people.

Interviewer : You were also in Hitchcocks The Birds which I watched last night.

Morgan : You did? (laughs)

Interviewer: yes you had quite a horrendous time in that. Getting attacked by a flock of seagulls and then savaged by a crow

Morgan : (laughs) exactly. We had a few birds that were real, some birds were mechanical and hand puppets. There were 4 of them that were particularly trained but it was the most unbelievable situation because back then they didn't have the special effects they do now. So it was pretty much letting the birds hit you.

Interviewer: So you not terrified of birds now? You don't run away screaming at the sight of one? ;) (laughs)

Morgan : (laughs) no no not at all.

Interviewer: You were established at this point as a child actress under the name Susan Cupito. What was the reason behind changing your name?

Morgan : At the time I was growing up in the business I was very well established within the industry as a child actor and as I grew up and turned into a teenager there was less and less work.In fact the last thing I did as a child actor under that name was a motion picture called Yours Mine and Ours with Lucile Ball and Henry Fonda. After that film everything pretty much stopped for me, the phones didn't ring anymore, the agents said the career was over there was nothing they could do, child actors didn't continue on, basically `thank you very much have a nice life`. I went back to school but I really was not trained to do anything except be an actor. I had no real education because I was in and out of schools so I decided that I would completely change my look, change my image, change my name and move to New York.

Interviewer: So is there a story behind the name Morgan Brittany?

Morgan : Yes I wanted a completely different name and I was interested in romantic civil war novels and as I got on the airplane to go to New York I had picked up a book. I thought I would keep the first name Susan and change the last name but I picked up this book and as I opened it the lead character in it was called Morgan Brittany.

Interviewer: what book was that?

Morgan: It was Blood Ties and written in the 1940`s and it fit me perfectly and it was so ironic that the character in that book was such an evil wicked woman and then I end up playing that kind of character.

Interviewer: So in 1981 you got the role of Katherine. How did that come about? What was the interview process like.

Morgan : I was with the William Morris Agency at the time and I really wanted my career to go more towards Motion pictures rather than television and I was not really interested in doing a television series , in fact I had never even seen Dallas and it had been on the air for 3 years but of course I knew the big who shot JR thing and it was like "oh I know that show, Iv heard about that show" but I really had not seen it and I had just gotten married in May and when I came back to Los Angeles my agent called me and said they are looking for a new character on this television show and they don’t know what they want, they don't know if they want young or old but they do know she’s the half sister of Pamela Ewing so I said I don't really want to go, they said just go.

I went to MGM studios and I walked into a room and there were tons of girls, tall, short, blonde, skinny, you name it they didn't know what they wanted. So I sat down and they gave me two pieces of paper to read. Finally about an hour and half later I went in, I really had an attitude (laughs) by that time I was very upset as I didn’t want to be there. I read the two pages and I got up and said "look that's all the time I have, I have to go" then I walked out. When I walked out I thought about it and I thought I’d never done that before. How could I do that? I called my agent and said I really blew it, I was so rude and nasty to these people and they are never going to want me. But that’s what they wanted, they liked that attitude. From that they decided that is what they could turn Katherine into.

Interviewer: Who interviewed you?

Morgan: Lets see now. Leonard Katzman, Phil Capice.

Interviewer: so were you pleased you got the role?

Morgan : you know I was in a sense but I remember asking my agent, I said I don’t want to do television and they said don’`t worry this is a very limited role, it’s only seven episodes. I said ok and that's fine as I really had my eye on doing feature films. So I did a movie and then I got a phone call that the character went over so well that they wanted me back as a regular.

Interviewer: so in those initial 7 episodes were you aware Katherine was a schemer?

Morgan: I worked it that way. There was an early scene with Cliff Barnes where I sort of made it antagonistic towards him and I realized that I was going to get on his nerves and I asked the director is that was ok and said "don’t give everything away but if you want to do that, that’s fine"

Playing it on the edge, you don’t know whether to like her or not, that's what made people interested in finding out more about her. So unfortunately to get me back on the show Rebecca had to die (laughs). I always felt so bad about that because that was the only way they could get me back on the show was to have her die.

Interviwer: so they killed her for you? that was rather unfortunate for Pricilla Pointer (laughing).

Morgan : yes I felt so terrible, I said to Pricilla that I was so sorry, but it was nothing to do with her, my character lived in New York and the only way to get her back to Dallas was to run the company from there, and Rebecca had to die for them to run the company.

Interviewer: So on your return did you sign a long term contract and at this point did you know Katherine was going to wreck havoc?

Morgan: Yes the contract was year to year, at that point they told me we really want me to turn hard and for the first two years she would be conniving and manipulating, involved with JR and then later go after Bobby. Because they had their shows already written out like a year in advance so they knew where everything was going.

Interviewer : So did you enjoy playing the bad girl?

Morgan: Oh I did. The only time in my career prior to that I played an evil character was in the twilight Zone.

Interviewer: Oh with the talking puppet

Morgan: that's right. I played a real nasty little girl but most of the roles I had up until then were very sweet and very nice. You know I had a career in New York City where I was a spokesperson for a product and was loved by everyone, they would buy anything from me , then all of a sudden this evil side comes out. It was a great opportunity for me because I had never played that before. But then it turned into a double edged sword where after being on that show people thought that was all I could do.

Interviewer: You perfected the evil glare so well. One scene in particular just before Katherine shoots Bobby you give JR this amazing stare. It was brilliant.

Morgan : Yes (laughs a lot) you know it’s funny because Larry Hagman helped me with that a lot. We got such a kick out of playing such evil characters and especially he and I together when we would do scenes together we would kind of be like which one is going to be meaner (laughs)

Interviewer: So you didn't have to think of someone you didn't like? (laughs)

Morgan: (laughs) You know I had a lot of motivation in my life. There were a lot of people that I would of loved to have acted that way towards but never could.

Interviewer: Did you have any say in how the character developed?

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