Remember Actor Garrett Morris? He Once Got Shot and Later Fired off 'Martin' Show Soon After

Stan Winters, the dubious radio boss on the ‘90s sitcom “Martin,” was a fan favorite until his unceremonious exit from the show. Garrett Morris, the actor who gave life to that character, once opened up about getting fired while he was recovering from gunshot wounds.

Before “Martin,” Morris had proved himself to be an excellent entertainer as part of the original cast of Saturday Night Live, so it must have been painful when he got kicked off the '90s sitcom.

Sharing his experience in an interview with Archive of American Television, Morris relived the unfortunate 1994 incident that would put him out of work and almost cost him his life.

Morris would later call out the show's title character, Martin Lawrence, for lying about visiting him

“Some people tried to rob me and had they known how to rob, which is simply come up and say ‘I’m gonna shoot you so give me your money,’ I would have done that,” explained the now-82-year-old.

Morris said the robbers grabbed him from behind and being a first-degree black belt, he reacted instinctively.

He continued:

“So when the guy grabbed me and I did what I did, it embarrassed him because I turned around ready to side-kick him and he had a gun…and he shoots me and messes up my intestines. I had to have a colostomy for like eight months. And it winded up with me having to have about ten major operations because when I got to the hospital I was in a coma.”

It was bad enough that Morris was fighting for his life “in the hospital,” but that’s when the producers of “Martin” reportedly chose to fire him.

“It was [around the time of] my fourth major operation, and I received a script that said “Stan sells the radio station and moves to China,’” recalled Morris. “I said to the makeup lady ‘Does that mean I’m out of the show?’ And she says ‘Garrett it looks like it to me.’”

“For some strange reason, they decided to get rid of me then,” he added.

Morris further explained that even though he was not happy about getting fired, gratitude for the fact that he got his life back kept him from contesting the decision or getting depressed.

Morris would later call out the show's title character, Martin Lawrence, for lying about visiting him while he was recovering in the hospital.

The seasoned performer would go on to put his talent to work as Uncle Junior on “The Jamie Foxx Show,” which aired from 1996–2001. More recently, Morris also starred as Earl Washington on the CBS sitcom “2 Broke Girls” from 2011 to 2017.