Michael Morris - Author of Madame Valentino
Last week I learned of the untimely passing of Fr. Michael Morris, author of Madame Valentino - The Many Lives of Natacha Rambova. His work on Rambova will stand the test of time, it is an excellent biography and a terrific piece of scholarly work.
I had the pleasure of meeting with Fr. Morris several times, including some delightful time spent at his home, talking Valentino, Natacha, spirituality, Hollywood gossip and a million other subjects. He was, smart, funny, a great raconteur and very generous with some of his rare photos of Natacha and Valentino that he shared with me for use in my own book, Rudolph Valentino the Silent Idol - His Life in Photographs. I must find his recipe for the crème brulee he served at a brunch, it was wonderful.
Michael also had a large (and impressive) collection of biblical themed movie posters. I remember him telling me he was working on a manuscript, sadly I expect this work will be left unfinished and/or unpublished. You can read a bit about this here.
It was a pleasure trading emails with him over the years and seeing him for coffee if I was making my way across the bay. He left us far too soon and too young. Happily, he left us a really well written and researched book on a woman who up to that time was really an enigma. Rest in Peace.
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| Fr. Michael Morris |
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