In the New Yorker...

[southendmd]

How did the English--or the man himself--pronounce the name of the actor Maurice Evans? I've only ever heard it Maurice, rather than Morris. Even Endora called him Maurice. 

From wiki:

American television audiences of the 1960s will remember Evans as Samantha's father, Maurice, on the sitcom Bewitched. His real-life insistence that his first name was pronounced the same as the name "Morris" was ironically at odds with his Bewitched character's contrasting stance that it be pronounced "Maw-REESE".

[Jeff Wrangler]

From wiki:

American television audiences of the 1960s will remember Evans as Samantha's father, Maurice, on the sitcom Bewitched. His real-life insistence that his first name was pronounced the same as the name "Morris" was ironically at odds with his Bewitched character's contrasting stance that it be pronounced "Maw-REESE".

Wouldn't surprise me if someone somewhere thought us Yankees would be confused if somebody pronounced "Maurice" as "Morris."

Evans once made a guest appearance on Daniel Boone (as the French playwright Beaumarchais--never mind!), and in the voice-over announcing his appearance, his name was pronounced "Maw-REESE."

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

Well, yes, but the Dutch and the Germans don't spell it "Maurice."

How did the English--or the man himself--pronounce the name of the actor Maurice Evans? I've only ever heard it Maurice, rather than Morris. Even Endora called him Maurice. 

Maurice Herbert Evans was born in Dorset, England and surely pronounced his 'Christian name' (as they used to say) "MORRIS"  (despite the fact that EVANS  is as Welsh as they come) but in AMERICA, well--


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Evans_(actor)

Personal life

Although he had taken U.S. citizenship, by the end of the 1960s, Evans returned to Britain. Aside from an infrequent trip to the United States and occasional visits to retired actors in financial need (as a representative of the Actors' Fund, of which he was a longtime trustee), he lived quietly near Brighton. He never married, and was survived by a brother, Hugh, of London.



Anyway, click and scroll down and see/hear all the variations of MAURICE (Gibb, natch)--American Pronunciation is totally Maw-REESE of course:

http://www.pronouncekiwi.com/Maurice%20Gibb

[Jeff Wrangler]

Do undergamekeepers really say things like "Come without fail" and "We shan't never be parted"?

(At least the second one has a double negative.)

Notwithstanding the lack of impression Maurice made on me, I really have always been a fan of Merchant-Ivory films. You always knew a Merchant-Ivory film would be a classy, high-quality production.

[Jeff Wrangler]

EVANS  is as Welsh as they come.

You ain't kiddin'. Early Philadelphia had a Welsh-born C. of E. parson. His name was Evan Evans!

[southendmd]

Evans once made a guest appearance on Daniel Boone (as the French playwright Beaumarchais--never mind!), and in the voice-over announcing his appearance, his name was pronounced "Maw-REESE."

Evans played the Shakespeare-quoting villain the Puzzler in the campy 60s Batman series:


But, I'll always remember him as Dr. Zaius from the Planet of the Apes and one of the awful sequels.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

Do undergamekeepers really say things like "Come without fail" and "We shan't never be parted"?

Well, Alec Scudder (Rupert Graves) was a particularly  talented undergameskeeper to be sure, saying winsome, lovely things like

"I wouldn't take a penny from you, I don't want to hurt your little finger, come on, let's give over talkin'"

and

"Stop with me, stay the night with me."




Now, here's another pronunciation for you, this time by Hermione Gingold--at 0:43

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsNm3rfZyCk[/youtube]
Gay Purr-ee  (1962)

Interestingly, there's this aside:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermione_Gingold


Early years

Gingold was born in Carlton Hill, Maida Vale, London, the elder daughter of a prosperous Vienna-born Jewish stockbroker James Gingold and his wife, Kate (née Walter). Her paternal grandparents were the Ottoman-born British subject, Moritz "Maurice" Gingold, a London stockbroker, and his Austrian-born wife, Hermine, after whom Hermione was named (Gingold mentions in her autobiography that her mother might have got Hermione from the Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale, which she was reading shortly before her birth). On her father's side, she was descended from the celebrated Solomon Sulzer, a famous synagogue cantor and Jewish liturgical composer in Vienna. Her mother was from a "well-to-do Jewish family". James felt that religion was something children needed to decide on for themselves, and Gingold grew up with no particular religious beliefs.

[Front-Ranger]

Do undergamekeepers really say things like "Come without fail" and "We shan't never be parted"?

Well, Robert Burns, the poet laureate of Scotland, was a farmer. In fact, he was called the Ploughman Poet.

[Jeff Wrangler]

What is it about British gamekeepers?

Maurice. ...

Lady Chatterley. ...

Just wond'rin'.

[Aloysius J. Gleek]

What is it about British gamekeepers?

They're 'earthy'?