Christopher Morley (actor)
Christopher Jarman Morley (July 22, 1951 – November 2, 2023) was an American actor and female impersonator known for cross-dressing roles in TV and film. He is best known for Freebie and the Bean (1974) and General Hospital (1980).
He was the elder of two sons of William Jarman Morley II and Audrey Mary Farmer. His family came from England and moved to the United States in 1843, living in Indiana and Kentucky. His great-grandfather helped start Morley Brothers Drug Company in Austin, Texas. After his parents divorced, Morley was raised by his mother with little contact with his father, a veterinarian in El Paso, Texas.
Morley went to UCLA in 1969, originally majoring in mathematics but switching to dance. He studied ballet with Mia Slavenska and Stanley Holden, and danced with the Santa Monica Ballet in The Nutcracker. He later earned a cosmetology license and worked at Vidal Sassoon in Beverly Hills and at Jon Peters’ salon on Rodeo Drive.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Morley specialized in cross-dressing roles in television and film. He is remembered for General Hospital as Sally Armitage, a bar owner who befriends Laura; the character is revealed to be a man and becomes involved in a plot before being killed. He also appeared on Magnum, P.I. as David Bannister, a disgraced MI6 agent who is openly a transvestite and becomes an assassin.
Morley was featured as a female impersonator in Playboy in May 1975, photographed by Mario Casilli. In the 1980s and 1990s he became a leading Marilyn Monroe impressionist at La Cage aux Folles Dinner Theatre in Los Angeles and toured with road shows to Las Vegas, Toronto, Taipei, and Helsinki.
Christopher Morley died on November 2, 2023, at age 72.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 14:04 (CET).