Bob Martwick; Handler of Morris, Other Animal Stars

He played second banana to a finicky feline. He liked it that way.

Bob Martwick, who found, trained and served as personal assistant to Morris the Cat (I and II), has died at the age of 75.

Martwick, who also worked with Spuds MacKenzie the beer-touting dog and other advertising animal stars, died Sunday in a suburban Chicago hospital of pulmonary fibrosis.

“I’m a self-employed animal handler and I supply many animals to movies, for ads and TV,” Martwick told The Times in 1983, when he accompanied the disdainful Morris to a series of personal appearances in Los Angeles. “He’s the one who made it big.”

A native of Phillips, Wis., Martwick was a Navy pilot during World War II and began working in the Chicago area as a steel foundry engineer. But when he rescued a boxer puppy about to be euthanized, he discovered a talent for training animals and switched careers to start a kennel and dog-breeding business.

Introduced to advertising contacts by his partner’s wife and daughter, whose hands appeared in soap commercials, Martwick began looking for and training photogenic animals. By 1960, he was supplying most of the animals used in television commercials throughout the Midwest.

He found Morris I on the day the cat was scheduled to be euthanized in a Chicago-area animal shelter. Captured in an alley after a fight, the troublesome tomcat had a torn eyelid that only added to his diamond-in-the-rough appearance.

When Star-Kist Foods Inc. came looking for a “macho cat” to tout 9Lives cat food, Martwick knew his orange “Lucky” was the one. As ordered, the handler presented several cats, saving Lucky, which he described as “more dog-like in his attitude” than most cats, until last. Martwick sent Lucky--the future Morris--into the board room alone, knowing he would immediately demand to be the center of attention.

“He jumped on the table . . . and he walked right up to the art director, the big cheese, and bumped him in the head. And then Morris just sat back,” Martwick said in 1995, years after the original Morris died. “The art director said, ‘This is the Clark Gable of cats.’ ”

That Morris, with an actor’s voice-over adding to the disdainful looks he provided when he was called to dinner on televisions across the country, made 58 commercials between 1969 and his death in 1978, did two books and traveled about 200,000 miles annually making personal appearances throughout the United States and Canada. He was featured on the television show “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” and, as the assumed model for the cartoon cat Garfield, appeared at cat shows in the company of Garfield creator Jim Davis.

Morris the Cat, with his sidekick Martwick either beside him or just off-camera, also appeared on “Good Morning America,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” in a Burt Reynolds movie and on his own poster, captioned “You can never be too finicky or too rich.”

After Morris I died at the age of 19, Martwick buried him in his backyard and set out with Morris II, who had been found in a shelter in Massachusetts. By then Martwick had given up his kennel business and worked on salary for Star-Kist, the official owner of Morris II.

The second Morris also went on the road, flying first class and staying at top hotels, including the Beverly Hills Hotel.

The haughty “spokescat” had the poshest carriers but retained one surprising plebeian preference. “The inside of a cardboard box,” Martwick once told The Times, “is what he loves best.”

Martwick is survived by two sons, George and Richard; a brother, Edward; and a sister, Winnie Kinas.