Obituary: Alexander Morton – actor and co-founder of Raindog Theatre Company

Although best known as a hard-working TV actor, Alexander ‘Sandy’ Morton, who has died aged 81, had strong links with the theatre, co-founding the Raindog Theatre Company in Glasgow in the early 1990s with fellow actors Robert Carlyle, Caroline Paterson and Stuart Davids. He played the lead role of McMurphy in its inaugural production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1991) at the Glasgow Arts Centre and the title role in Macbeth (1992).

Morton also worked with the celebrated Scottish-based companies 7:84 and Borderline, and appeared on stage at the Traverse and Lyceum in Edinburgh and London’s Bush and Royal Court theatres, as well as appearing in pantomime at the King’s Theatre in Glasgow and at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness. His more straight-laced roles included Robert Burns, William Wallace and William MacWilliam.

Glasgow-born Morton trained at London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and caught an early break in the long-running Scottish TV soap, Take the High Road, between 1980 and 1994, playing the villainous Andy Semple. More recently, he appeared in BBC Scotland’s River City, another soap, playing Billy Kennedy from 2012 to 2015.
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His most challenging stage work was with Raindog, which ran for 10 years in the 1990s before closing due to financial problems. Its productions also included Mike Leigh’s Ecstasy and John Byrne’s Slab Boys Trilogy. Among others, it gave early breaks to actors Peter Mullan, Shirley Henderson, Tommy Flanagan and Gary Lewis.

On TV, Morton was probably best known for his role as the dour Golly Mackenzie, the Glenbogle estate’s gruff but kindly ghillie, in all 64 episodes of the long-running BBC Scotland hit Monarch of the Glen, starring Richard Briers, Susan Hampshire and Julian Fellowes.

He was also the first in a line of actors to play John Rebus, the anti-hero detective of Ian Rankin’s creation, in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of the books, and he provided voices for a number of video games, including Heavenly Sword and The Witcher.

Paying tribute to his friend and former colleague, Carlyle said: “Working with [Morton] through the years with Raindog was an education. Not only a brilliant actor but also one of the kindest men I ever knew. His unique, naturalistic style was a thing of beauty, so real that you would forget he was even acting at all. He taught me so much. I owe him so much, and he will forever be in my heart.”

Alexander ‘Sandy’ Morton was born on 24th March, 1945, and died on 14th April, aged 81. He is survived by his wife Jane, son Jamie, daughter Kerry and stepchildren Connie, Gabriel and actor Leo Woodall.