Entertainment

Original 'Kiss Me, Kate' star Patricia Morison dead at 103

Actress Patricia Morison, who portrayed the shrewish Lilli Vanessi in the Broadway hit, "Kiss Me, Kate," died Sunday. Photo: David Livingston/Getty Images

Patricia Morison, who played the shrewish lead role in the 1948 Cole Porter Broadway musical "Kiss Me, Kate," died Sunday, Variety reported. She was 103.

Morison also appeared on stage with Yul Brynner in “The King and I” and starred in films such as “The Song of Bernadette.” She also appeared as Basil Rathbone’s foil in the 1946 Sherlock Holmes film, “Dressed to Kill.”

“Kiss Me, Kate” was an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew.” It had a run of 1,077 performances over 2½ years on Broadway and won six Tony Awards, including best musical, Variety reported.

In “Kiss Me, Kate,” Morison’s renditions of “So In Love” and “I Hate Men” became classics. She played the character of Lilli Vanessi.

"When I first heard 'So In Love,' when Cole Porter played it for me, it just knocked me out. It was a beautiful gift," Morison told Los Angeles magazine in March 2015.

Kathryn Grayson starred as Lilli/Kate in the 1953 film version for MGM, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Morison was born March 15, 1915, in New York City. She was the daughter of actor-playwright William Morison and Selena Fraser, a British Intelligence agent during World War I, Variety reported.

Morison made her film debut in the 1939 movie “Persons in Hiding.”

In addition to appearing as Empress Eugenie opposite Jennifer Jones in “The Song of Bernadette,” Morison starred with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in the romantic comedy “Without Love” in 1945.

On television, she played a psychiatrist in the 1952 show “The Cases of Eddie Drake” and made an appearance on a 1989 episode of “Cheers,” the Reporter wrote.