Morgan Stevens - Cast Member of the Month

Calvin Morgan Stevens was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on October 16th 1951, under the sign of Libra. Librans have been described as polite, romantic and have a good sense of humour. These were all qualities mentioned about Morgan in an interview in the Official Fame Magazine in 1983.

Morgan’s father died when he was 9 years old, forcing his mother to sell the family home to be able to support Morgan and his 2 siblings.  Once Morgan’ career took off he bought the old family home back for his Mother. 

Morgan is known by the nickname Chuck to family and friends. Standing 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 meters) he grew up loving sports, including, boxing, football and baseball. As he got older he developed a passion for horse riding, skiing, skydiving and scuba diving. He also loved motorcycles.

Morgan attended the University of Tennessee and originally studied advertising. Unhappy with his major subject he took a year off and became a coast guard in New York.  Having the opportunity to see lots of Broadway shows he developed a keen interest in acting.

Returning to University for his senior year he switched his major and achieved a degree in theatre arts.  Six months after graduating Morgan moved to Hollywood where he started working in TV and films, guest starring in TV shows like One Day at A Time, Quincy and “The Waltons”, where he appeared as Paul Northridge in one episode and in three reunion movies. Paul became the husband of Erin Walton. Morgan also had starring roles in Movies “Up River” and “Survival Zone”.

In 1982 he was filming the Mini Series “Bare Essence” and auditioned for “Fame”.  At the time he stated this was his most frightening audition he ever had as he was made to wait 3 weeks before he knew he got the role.  He’d convinced himself he hadn’t got it but just as he was leaving to attend the 

“Bare Essence” wrap party he got the call to say he’d been successful. It was a Friday night and the producers wanted him to report to work at MGM studios on the following Monday Morning.

Morgan stated “Fame is special to me. I’ve always wanted a regular continuing role on a series, so I could really develop a character so I could bring him along through experiences and change. I think I’m very lucky that I got to do it on Fame.”

Morgan Played new drama teacher David Reardon, joining the cast for season 2 in 1982. Joining  the Show  late, the rest of the cast had already spent a couple of weeks filming on location in New York City and scripts were already decided upon and none of the called for Morgan to sing or dance.  He begged the producers to write him in a musical number and finally got his wish in the final episode of the season “U.N. Week” with “The Music Man” number “Ya Got Trouble”.

As the character hadn’t been finalized when Morgan joined the show he discussed with the producers how he wanted the character to develop. He asked for David to have a passion for acting and compassion for his students. He was new to teaching and originally took the job t have a steady income as he was divorced and had to pay alimony and child support. There was also a story idea that his ex wife would want to move his child to another state and David would fight for custody. Although there was a reference to him being married and divorced none of this made it on screen during season 2 but that is possibly because the scripts had already been decided upon but presumably would be how David’s story line would have developed had Morgan stayed on the show.

Morgan featured in 20 episodes of season 2 but after “Fame” was cancelled by NBC and then put into production as a Syndicated series Morgan decided not to renew his contract as a full time cast member on the show and instead featured as a guest star in 5 further episodes during seasons 3 and 4. He even wrote the third season episode “Catch A Falling Star”.

After Featuring in 25 episodes the character of David Reardon disappeared, never to be seen or mentioned again. No exit story line was given for the character and Morgan didn’t return for the series finale in 1987.

While still guest starring on “Fame” and after he left the show , Morgan also continued working guest starring on other American TV shows like “The Love Boat”, “The Return of Marcus Welby M.D.”, “Airwolf”, “Magnum P.I.”, “Hotel” and featured in 4 episodes of the short lived “Bare Essence” TV Series.

While working on “The Love Boat” he started dating actress Ana Alicia who was one of the stars of “Falcon Crest”, although after a few years that relationship ended.  

In 1986 Morgan appeared in the Miniseries “A Year In The Life” playing Jack Gardner. He continued with this role in the 1987/1988 series version of the show. 

He also starred with Lisa Hartman in the TV movie “Roses are for the Rich” and continued guest starring in shows like “Murder she Wrote” and “Danger Bay”.

Then in August 1989 tragedy struck when Morgan was arrested by the LAPD on suspicion of drunk driving after a minor car accident. Morgan had recently had surgery on his vocal chords and also taken prescription medication for a back problem and failed to make himself understood. A blood alcohol test later cleared him of any wrong doing. However, while in custody Morgan was beaten severely by Police. He suffered a broken nose, a fractured cheek, a dislocated jaw and nerve damage to the right side of his face.

The incident led to bouts of depression and his injuries meant he was unable to work, which forced him to refinance his home in Sherman Oaks. Morgan sued the LAPD and nearly 2 years after the incident took place the Police Department decided to settle the case out of court.

Morgan returned to acting in 1992 and most notably played Nick Diamond in seven episodes of “Melrose Place” in 1995 and appeared in 3 episodes of “Murder One” in 1996. However work was not as plentiful as it had been in his early career. The after effects of the beating still haunted him and in 1999 he made his last acting appearance in an episode of “Walker, Texas Ranger”.

Since then nothing has been heard of Morgan and he has spent over 20 years living his life out of the public eye. 

On 26th January 2022 Morgan was found dead at his home. His neighbour raised the alarm after they hadn't seen him  for a few days.  The police found him dead on arrival. It was discovered he'd been suffering from heart disease and died from a heart attack.