CONVERSATIONS OF A SPIRITED ACTOR/JOE MORTON

Joe Morton has been working steadily--very steadily--as an actor since the late 1960s. At one point in his career, he estimated that he had been out of work for perhaps 12 months out of 20 years. Of his many stage, screen, and television performances, he is perhaps best remembered as the Brother in The Brother From Another Planet, a 1984 John Sayles film. This is Morton's favorite role, as a mute black alien who appears in Harlem. More typically, however, the actor is cast as "smart men with stability to spare," as Felicia R. Lee remarked in the New York Times. Morton's professional interests also include producing films and directing for stage and television. Morton spent his early childhood in Europe where his father was stationed as an army intelligence