R.I.P. Cindy Morgan, from Caddyshack and Tron
Morgan co-starred in eye-catching roles in two of the most iconic films of the early '80s
Aux News Cindy Morgan
Cindy Morgan has died. An actor best known for roles in iconic ’80s staples Caddyshack and Tron, Morgan’s career charted a surprisingly wide breadth of 1980s cultural touchstones, making her a convention circuit fixture for the rest of her life. Beyond those two films, the Chicago-born Morgan appeared in a number of other TV shows and movies, too, across a career that stretched all the way up to 2022. Per TMZ, which reported her death on Saturday afternoon, Morgan was 69. No cause of death has been reported.
Morgan had a long and winding road to appearing in hit films, having started out in radio—and worked a brief stint in an automotive factory—before breaking in to acting and commercials. She was cast in her very first film, Harold Ramis’ Caddyshack, in 1980, appearing as young bombshell Lacey Underwood, sharing key scenes with stars Chevy Chase and Michael O’Keefe. (Including a memorable sequence in which Lacey attempts to throw Chase’s typically placid Ty off his game with mentions of “skinny-skiing” and “watching bullfights on LSD.”)
In 1981, Morgan joined the cast of Tron in dual roles, playing Dr. Lora Baines in the real world, and program Yori within its digital reality. Covered for most of her screen-time in a bulky helmet and glowing lines, Morgan shared scenes (and, in rapid succession, on-screen kisses) with co-stars Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner. Morgan didn’t reprise the role for 2010's Tron: Legacy—despite a fan campaign insisting “Yori Lives”—although she did appear with Boxleitner in promotional materials for the film.
Beyond Caddyshack and Tron, Morgan appeared with some regularity, mostly on TV, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most notably with a multi-episode run on prime time soap opera Falcon Crest. In interviews, meanwhile, she appeared eternally game to talk with, and about, the fans she’d picked up in both the comedy and sci-fi worlds (joking at one point that she was careful to keep her Tron and Caddyshack photos at opposite ends of her convention tables), and remained enthusiastic about those projects that had briefly made her a household face to millions of people.
40 Comments
It’s Lacey Underall, dammit!
Yea I had to double check that myself.
It’s also “going to” bullfights on acid, not “watching.”Imagine being a pop culture writer and being so fucking lazy you eat shit in an obituary on the name of the actor’s biggest character and one of their best loved quotes. Do these writers have no self-respect?
Take it easy
100%
Pay peanuts, get monkeys. Get enough monkeys to type enough words, you’ll end up with an obit that’s almost error free. Almost error free is good enough for The AV Club dot com!
Perhaps the writer mixed up the character’s name with Bushwood, the name of the country club. And it was “bullfights on acid”, not “bullfights on LSD” (yes, I know they are the same thing, but I’m not sure the writer ever saw the movie).
It’s “going to bullfights on acid,” dammit!
Last time she appeared for Caddyshack related anniversary interview, she looked like she swallowed Rodney Dangerfield.
One of my everlasting 80’s crushes. Caddyshack, Tron, and the CBS Indiana Jones ripoff show, Bring ‘Em Back Alive. I was always surprised that she didn’t have a bigger career being that she was stunning, intelligent, and had decent comedic timing but, when I think about it, none of the big-eyed, beautiful TV blondes like Heather Locklear or Heather Thomas ended up having massive careers.There was a Caddyshack documentary from a few years back (might have been on the DVD as an extra, can’t remember). She was on it and she was luminous. Still beautiful, funny and gracious. Anyways, on the doc, there was a story that was told for laughs but I found horrific. They were making the movie and it was taking months because there was never a completed script and everybody was on drugs. At some point, everybody decided that Morgan needed to be naked in the movie. They wanted to see Morgan naked and they knew that all the boys watching the movie would want to see her naked too, but nudity wasn’t in her contract and she refused. If I remember correctly, they spent days and days trying to convince her to take her top off for the film but she refused. They explained the situation, on a phone call, with the head of the studio and he told them to put her on the phone with him.Nobody knows what the studio boss said to her, but when she got off the phone call, she agreed to take her clothes off. Again, nobody knows if she was offered a fortune or a threat, but they were laughing about this like it was the funniest goddamn thing. I found it chilling. Even before #MeToo this seemed wrong. She didn’t talk about it and, by her demeanor in the interviews, didn’t seem to harbor any ill will but I never forgot it. Anyways, RIP. 69 is too damn young.
I read about that incident, but with more details, one of the producers was so mad at her about her obstinance, he made sure she wasn’t invited to the premiere. She did end up going as someone’s date, and that producer was really upset that she was there. It sounded to me like she might have been blackballed because of it. I read this some time ago, and going off memory.
With what we know about how Harvey Weinstein destroyed the careers of women who said no to him, I suspect it’s that she was definitely blackballed. I’d go as far to say that if a woman seems to have been in some movies that did really well but then disappeared from screens, I’d put money on that being what happened.
Gods. What a petty dick. Disgusting pig dick too I should say, seeing as he wanted to pressure a woman into showing off her boobs against her will.Hopefully that piece of crap died before her. :/
by her demeanor in the interviews, didn’t seem to harbor any ill will but I never forgot itFelicia Day said something really interesting in a stream a while back, where she actually slightly regrets not doing “some tasteful nudity when I was younger” – as in, you’ve only got that body once (especially when you have a kid as she did a few years back), and she now thinks it’s a little bit of a shame she didn’t show it off. Amusingly, that was right around the time that Richard Gere made the basically the same comment on Graham Norton when the host showed stills from his early 80s stuff and his immediate unprompted reaction was “I wish I still had that body.”I hope later in life Morgan ended up viewing the Caddyshack scenes that way even if the behind the scenes pressure to get her to do so sounds really, really screwed up.
I think Sydney Sweeny said something similar. Look if you want to show it off go for it, if you don’t then don’t.
Heather Locklear has a pretty big career. Melrose Place & Spin City were big shows in their heyday.
But Heather Thomas quit the industry because she was being stalked.
So?
Both Heathers were models before they were actresses, and generally not expected to show much range. Locklear did show good comedic timing on Spin City, though. Morgan was much more of a traditional actress and I am also surprised she didn’t do more.
I saw the “Making Of” Doc. She never agreed to the topless scene. It certainly was not in the movie.
I commend your ability to open with a description of her as your crush, and yet not be creepy at all about it, while closing out with a really important reminder about sexual politics in our day. Pretty slick execution. And alas, because this is the internet, I feel the need to specify that I am being sincere, and not a dick.
So I looked into this, and…it doesn’t look good. I’d read of her saying a few things that sounded like some dodgy shit from the men, but sounded happy about how it worked out. But this little bit of IMDb trivia stood out:
Cindy Morgan did not want to appear topless in the movie. In an interview with TV Store Online she claims that while Harold Ramis was amenable to changing the scene, producer Jon Peters
asked to talk to her while Ramis had her on the phone. When the call
ended, Peters informed Ramis that Morgan would do the topless scene
because he threatened her saying she would never work again in Hollywood
if she didn’t.
I listened through the three-part interview so far as I could find it on YouTube, and while her telling doesn’t say this exactly, it does look like her career suffered for having been reluctant in the first place, and Peters still sounds like a colossal asshole. (go to about 13:40)
It’s “medium talent Chevy Chase”, dammit!
I’d say “marginal talent” myself though. I never found his schtik particularly funny myself….Although I did enjoy him in that one single movie; the Invisible Man re-make from back in the day now. He actually managed to not be particularly annoying and cringey in that one, so well done, Chevy.Almost beats that other dickwad Bill Murray clocking him, allegedly. lol
A friend of mine and I met her at a convention in Florida. She was just all smiles and loved having generations of fans. My friend got an autographed photo and now I wish I had done the same. We’re both going to miss her.
As much as I love Tron, I have to admit it has some obvious problems, one of them being that it gave Cindy Morgan so little to do in her dual role. And yet she managed to make an impression anyway. I’m glad she was able to enjoy the notoriety of her early roles while still working in the industry.
TRON was special effects technology in search of a movie. It looked pretty cool at the time but didn’t make much sense. But the teenage nerd that I was at the time ate it up.
“Cindy Morgan has died.”Fuck off bot.
Lacey Underall you half-witted jackanapes. Do your work.
YOU’LL GET NOTHING AND LIKE IT!
But I want a hamburger, no, a cheeseburger, a hot dog, a milkshake, potato chips …
$50 says he eats it
Not until after you loofah some stretchmarks, guy
$50 the Funkhouser kid picks his nose.
Yori forever!
Rest in Peace!
Possibly the most attractive person I have ever seen in a movie in her role in Caddyshack. May she rest in peace.
You didn’t give two shits about her last week.
Or maybe he did, but had no reason to bring her up?
“Or maybe he did”
That must be why he didn’t bother looking up her most famous character’s name, right?
I was 12 when “Caddyshack” came out. Not surprisingly, she made a VERY strong impact on my adolescent years. And even when I got older (like, NOW,) she was still just absolutely gorgeous. And funny! And a fine actress, and most importantly based on everything I’ve read, a good person.
R.I.P., Cindy Morgan.