A CRESCENT CITY ICON HAS DIED
COVINGTON LA – Farewell to Dr. Morgus the Magnificent. Actor Sidney Noel Rideau died of natural causes on Thursday morning at Christwood Retirement Community in Covington, according to his daughter Natalie Rideau.
Sidney Rideau was born on Christmas 1929, hence his stage name, Noel. He graduated from Alcee Fortier High School and attended Loyola University, where he studied communications. During the Korean War, Rideau served for eight years in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Rideau first reached a wide audience when he hosted WWL radio’s morning “Dawnbusters” program in the mid-1950s. The Dr. Morgus character Rideau invented first debuted on WWL-TV in 1959. Over time, the self-assured scientist toyed with everything from teleportation to lycanthropy to cloning. Morgus was a lovable character who wanted to do good but always screwed up in the end. His hooded lab assistant Chopsley was always there to mess things up for him.
By 1962, the Morgus character was so popular that Rideau was invited to star in a full-length feature film, “The Wacky World of Dr. Morgus,” a tongue-in-cheek Cold War spy thriller.
Rideau relocated the Morgus show to Detroit in 1964, then returned to New Orleans for a few more episodes before the show went off the air for almost 20 years. But in 1987, a revival of the show returned with 52 new episodes.
Morgus’ sidekick Eric was portrayed by an Apple II computer.
Morgus has remained a Crescent City icon for almost six decades. Natalie Rideau said that, recently, she discovered a social media meme that announced that Morgus had discovered the cure for the coronavirus.
His family plans a private funeral service at a later date. He was 90 years old.
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