John Morgan
John Morgan was born on 21 September 1930 in Aberdare, South Wales. Before turning to comedy, he worked as a journalist, editor, teacher and pub owner. He later emigrated to Canada, where he began his broadcasting career in the mid-1960s.
With writing partner Martin Bronstein, Morgan created the CBC radio series Funny You Should Say That, and in 1970 the pair founded the comedy troupe The Jest Society in Montreal. Alongside Roger Abbott, Don Ferguson and Luba Goy, the troupe evolved in 1973 into the Royal Canadian Air Farce, first on CBC Radio and, from 1993, on CBC Television.
Morgan became one of Canada's best-known comic performers, playing characters including the perpetually disgusted Scotsman Jock McBile, the monosyllabic Mike from Canmore, and mortician Hector Baggley, as well as satirical impressions of prominent public figures. As head writer, he logged more than 4,000 sketches across the show's radio and television history before retiring from Air Farce in 2001. He also wrote the pilot for the popular Canadian sitcom King of Kensington.
Over his career Morgan won fifteen ACTRA Awards and three Gemini Awards, and shared a Juno Award for best comedy album. In 1998 he received, together with his Air Farce colleagues, the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. He died at his home in Toronto on 15 November 2004, aged 74.