Garrett Morris

Garrett Morris arrived in New York with a scholarship to Juilliard and a voice trained in his grandfather's church choir in New Orleans.

Before television typecast him, Morris was a classically trained singer who toured with the Belafonte Folk Singers and performed in Broadway plays.

But fate placed him in NBC's Studio 8H in 1975.

The Miscalculation at Rockefeller Center

When Lorne Michaels signed him for the premiere of Saturday Night Live, the actor was already close to forty.

He was the veteran of the group and the only Black member on a team of white writers who didn't know what to write for him.

He was typecast as servants or criminals while he tried to slip his operatic training into the chaos of live television.

Despite the creative friction, his character Chico Escuela on the network's satirical newscast became etched in the national audience's memory.

He wasn't happy there.

His starting salary on 1975 was $750 per episode.

After leaving the show in 1980, the industry gave him a frosty indifference that lasted almost a decade.

Bullets and Second Chances

He took on minor projects and voiced supporting characters in animated series that barely made use of his real talent.

In 1994 a violent attack on a busy Los Angeles street nearly ended his life abruptly.

He was shot several times during a robbery attempt and went through grueling physical rehabilitation that kept him out of the spotlight for months.

Because the actor never accepted the role of victim, he returned to the screen in the comedy The Jamie Foxx Show in 1996.

He played Uncle Junior for one hundred episodes and revived his career with a character that connected with new generations.

And the gamble paid off.

The Brooklyn Cashier

So when the casting process for 2 Broke Girls came around in 2011, Morris no longer had anything to prove to anyone.

His role as Earl, the music-loving, sarcastic cashier at a neighborhood diner, stayed on the air for six full seasons.

In 2019 he appeared in the film Grand-Daddy Day Care and had brief roles in low-budget independent productions.

His name returned to the headlines in February 2024 when he received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

It was a late recognition for a man who survived segregation, live television and urban violence.

The ceremony fell exactly on his 87 birthday.