Morley Safer

Acting

Morley Safer

Born 1931-11-08 · Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Morley Safer (November 8, 1931 – May 19, 2016) was a Canadian-American broadcast journalist, reporter, and correspondent for CBS News. He was best known for his long tenure on the news magazine 60 Minutes, whose cast he joined in 1970 after its second year on television. He was the longest-serving reporter on 60 Minutes. During his 60-year career as a broadcast journalist, Safer received numerous awards, including 12 Emmys, a Lifetime Achievement Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, three Overseas Press Awards, three Peabody Awards, two Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, and the Paul White Award from the Radio-Television News Directors Association. In 2009, Safer donated his papers to the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin. Jeff Fager, executive producer of 60 Minutes, said "Morley has had a brilliant career as a reporter and as one of the most significant figures in CBS News history, on our broadcast and in many of our lives. Morley's curiosity, his sense of adventure and his superb writing, all made for exceptional work done by a remarkable man." He died a week after announcing his retirement from 60 Minutes.

Acting credits

Morning Glory poster
6.4

A young and devoted morning television producer is hired as an executive producer on a long-running morning show at a once-prominent but currently failing station in New York City. Eager to keep the show on air, she recruits a former news journalist and anchor who disapproves of co-hosting a show that does not deal with real news stories.

Morning Glory

2010

Jim Henson Idea Man poster
7.8

Featuring unprecedented access to Jim Henson's personal archives, filmmaker Ron Howard brings us a fascinating and insightful look at a complex man whose boundless imagination inspired the world.

Jim Henson Idea Man

2024

Andre the Giant poster
7.3

An ambitious and wide-ranging documentary exploring Andre’s upbringing in France, his celebrated career in WWE, and his forays in the entertainment world.

Andre the Giant

2018

Dolly Parton: An American Original – Special Edition of 20/20 poster
10.0

Celebrating Dolly Parton's life, music and legacy -- featuring never-before-seen interviews with Dolly herself, unforgettable interviews with Robin Roberts and Barbara Walters, and reflections from those who knew her best.

Dolly Parton: An American Original – Special Edition of 20/20

2026

Sing! Sesame Street Remembers Joe Raposo and His Music poster
9.0

A television special broadcast in honor of composer, songwriter, pianist, television writer and lyricist Joe Raposo following his death in early 1989.

Sing! Sesame Street Remembers Joe Raposo and His Music

1990

Being Canadian poster
5.6

What does it actually mean to be Canadian? This humorous documentary, featuring interviews with a who's-who of famous Canadians, hopes to find the answer.

Being Canadian

2015

Mike Wallace Is Here poster
6.5

For over half a century, 60 Minutes' fearsome newsman Mike Wallace went head-to-head with the world's most influential figures. Relying exclusively on archival footage, the film interrogates the interrogator, tracking Wallace's storied career and troubled personal life while unpacking how broadcast journalism evolved to today’s precarious tipping point.

Mike Wallace Is Here

2019

Where's My Roy Cohn? poster
5.6

Roy Cohn personified the dark arts of American politics, turning empty vessels into dangerous demagogues - from Joseph McCarthy to his final project, Donald J. Trump. This thriller-like exposé connects the dots, revealing how a deeply troubled master manipulator shaped our current American nightmare.

Where's My Roy Cohn?

2019

Agnelli poster
7.4

Documentary about the life of Giovanni "Gianni" Agnelli, an influential Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat.

Agnelli

2017

The Canadian Conspiracy poster
5.5

A mockumentary illustrating a supposed conspiracy to infiltrate American culture through employing Canadians in the U.S. entertainment industry.

The Canadian Conspiracy

1986

A Wing and a Prayer – The Story of Knock Airport poster
10.0

Directed by John Blackman, "A Wing and a Prayer – The Story of Knock Airport" follows the efforts to construct an international airport at Knock in County Mayo during the early 1980s. Originating from a 1981 RTÉ News report, the film charts Monsignor James Horan’s campaign to build a full-length runway in a remote, rural location, documenting the political resistance, changing governments, and repeated setbacks that accompanied the project before the airport’s opening in 1986.

A Wing and a Prayer – The Story of Knock Airport

1986

Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn poster
6.1

Legendary and controversial attorney Roy Cohn was a power broker in the rough and tumble world of New York City business and politics. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s top counsel during investigations into Communist activities in the 1950s, Cohn is also known for being Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, fixer and mentor.

Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn

2019

Traficant: The Congressman of Crimetown poster
9.2

"Traficant: The Congressman of Crimetown" is a documentary examining the rise and fall of Ohio congressman Jim Traficant, a populist political figure whose confrontational style and local support contrasted with his eventual conviction on federal corruption charges.

Traficant: The Congressman of Crimetown

2015

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time poster
6.8

A documentary 33 years in the making. A director and friend of Kurt Vonnegut seeks through his archives to create the first film featuring the revolutionary late writer.

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time

2021

Dolly Parton – An American Icon poster
NR

Hosted by Gayle King and Tony Dokoupil alongside correspondent Anthony Mason, Dolly Parton – An American Icon shares new reports on the artist, whose work spans music, television, film and books, and pulls from CBS News’ vast archives of interviews with Parton – including a 2009 60 Minutes interview with Morley Safer, and interviews with Dokoupil and Mason – and features additional commentary from country music’s biggest stars and those who knew her best.

Dolly Parton – An American Icon

2026

The Public's Right to Know poster
NR

A documentary in which Kenneth Griffith, actor and filmmaker, endeavors to find the truth behind the banning of two of his films, one on the life of Michael Collins and the other on Badon Powell. Featuring interviews with the legendary 60 Minutes journalist Morley Safer, actor Peter O'Toole, Jeremy Isaacs, Benny Green, and William Deedes.

The Public's Right to Know

1974

The Sturgeon Queens poster
6.0

Four generations of a Jewish immigrant family create Russ and Daughters, a Lower East Side lox and herring emporium that survives and thrives. Produced to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the store, this documentary features an extensive interview with two of the original daughters for whom the store was named, now 100 and 92 years old, and interviews with prominent enthusiasts of the store including Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, chef Mario Batali, New Yorker writer Calvin Trillin, and 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer. Rather than a conventional narrator, the filmmakers bring together six colorful longtime fans of the store, in their 80s and 90s, who sit around a table of fish reading the script in the style of a passover Seder. - Written by Julie Cohen

The Sturgeon Queens

2014

Kurt Vonnegut’s Indianapolis: A Writer’s Roots poster
NR

"Kurt Vonnegut’s Indianapolis: A Writer’s Roots" is a documentary examining how Kurt Vonnegut’s upbringing in Indianapolis shaped his life and work, drawing on archival material and interviews with family, friends, and fellow writers.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Indianapolis: A Writer’s Roots

2015

Don't Touch That Dial! poster
9.0

"Don’t Touch That Dial!" is a CBS Reports documentary that explores the creation and production of two American prime-time television series, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Family Ties. Broadcast in 1982, the film documents how network television programs are developed for a mass audience, focusing on the industrial, creative, and logistical processes behind successful network scheduling.

Don't Touch That Dial!

1982

Exodus 1947 poster
8.0

Exodus 1947 is a one hour PBS documentary narrated by Morley Safer with a score by Ilan Rechtman. The Exodus 1947 voyage acted as a catalyst in forming the new State of Israel. The documentary focuses on clandestine and "illegal" American efforts to finance and crew the most infamous of ten American ships that attempted to bring Jewish refugees to Palestine.

Exodus 1947

1997

No artwork available
NR

A 1967 CBS television documentary in which Morley Safer presents, without commentary, interviews with U.S. airmen returning from a bombing mission in Vietnam, allowing their descriptions of killing to stand on their own.

Morley Safer’s Vietnam: A Personal Report

1967

Behind the camera