Robert Middleton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Middleton, born Samuel G. Messer (May 13, 1911 – June 14, 1977), was an American film and television actor known for his large size and beetle-like brow. With a deep, booming voice, Middleton trained for a musical career at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He worked steadily as a radio announcer and actor.

One of his early works was as the narrator of the educational film "Duck and Cover". After appearing on the Broadway stage and live television, Middleton began appearing in films in 1954. He's also remembered on television as the boss Mr. Marshall on The Jackie Gleason Show and in film opposite Humphrey Bogart in The Desperate Hours (1955), Gary Cooper in Friendly Persuasion (1956), Richard Egan and Elvis Presley in Love Me Tender (1956), Dorothy Malone and Robert Stack in The Tarnished Angels (1958), and Dean Martin in Career (1959).

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Middleton appeared in many television programs in the 1950s and 1960s, including the CBS anthology series Appointment with Adventure. He was cast as "The Tichborne Claimant" in the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show. He appeared in ten episodes of ABC's family Western The Monroes, with costars Michael Anderson, Jr., and Barbara Hershey. Among his several appearances in the long-running Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he portrayed a gangster in high places, Mr. Koster, in the 1956 episode "The Better Bargain". In 1958, he played the villain in the first episode of Bat Masterson. In 1961, he appeared in the episode "Accidental Tourist" on the James Whitmore ABC legal drama The Law and Mr. Jones. That same year, he portrayed the highly sympathetic but fiercely dedicated state executioner in an episode of Thriller (U.S. TV series) entitled "Guillotine". He also appeared in at least one episode of Bonanza (1964).

In the early 1950s, Middleton appeared on Broadway in Ondine. Other significant film roles include The Court Jester (1956) as a grim and determined knight who jousts with Danny Kaye in the famous "pellet with the poison" sequence, and as a sinister politician in The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977). Betwixt and between were an array of brutish mountain daddies, corrupt, cigar-chomping town bosses and lynch mob leaders. Occasionally he showed a bit of levity, as in his recurring role as Jackie Gleason's boss on The Honeymooners (1955) sketches.

Middleton died of congestive heart failure in Hollywood at the age of sixty-six.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Middleton, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Columbo

8.1

Bonanza

7.5

Get Smart

7.9

Mission: Impossible

7.6

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

7.7

Even Angels Eat Beans

6.4

Kung Fu

7.6

The Court Jester

7.3

The Desperate Hours

7.0

The Big Combo

7.0

Perry Mason

7.7

Friendly Persuasion

6.6

The Untouchables

7.9

Gunsmoke

6.6

The Tarnished Angels

6.7

Love Me Tender

6.1

The Wild Wild West

7.6

A Big Hand for the Little Lady

7.1

The Cheyenne Social Club

6.4

The Law and Jake Wade

6.6

The Big Valley

6.1

Mannix

6.7

McCloud

7.1

Rawhide

7.2

Duck and Cover

5.9

The Silver Chalice

4.4

The Proud Ones

6.4

Hell Bent for Leather

6.2

Which Way to the Front?

4.8

Alias Smith and Jones

6.9

Daniel Boone

6.9

The Wonderful World of Disney

7.6

Red Sundown

6.1

The Great Impostor

6.9

Don't Give Up the Ship

6.4

The Lonely Man

6.1

Thriller

6.3

The Mark of Zorro

5.9

Trial

6.7

The Harrad Experiment

3.7

Career

6.5

Day of the Badman

6.5

Bat Masterson

6.1

Gold of the Seven Saints

7.0

Cattle King

6.0

Burke's Law

6.0

The Lincoln Conspiracy

5.6

Climax!

3.0

Suspense

4.7

For Those Who Think Young

5.2

The Rebel

5.1

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

5.5

The Detectives

5.6

The Tall Man

6.3

Adventures in Paradise

5.7

Tales of Tomorrow

6.0

Lux Video Theatre

6.0

Matinee Theater

4.6

Letter to Loretta

6.2

Hunter

8.0

General Electric Theater

6.0

The Monroes

5.7

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

7.0

Wichita Town

4.2

Cavalcade of America

3.5

Telephone Time

6.3

No Place to Land

3.0

Target: The Corruptors!

3.5

The New Breed

7.0

Company of Killers

4.0

Witchcraft: The Doll in Brambles

6.0

The Walter Winchell File

5.0

The Americans

6.0

Man Against Crime

6.0

Remember When

0.0

The Death of Manolete

0.0

Fair Play

0.0

Bitter Heritage

0.0

Nightmare at Ground Zero

0.0

The Adventures of Gallegher

0.0

Something For An Empty Briefcase

0.0

Vacation Playhouse

0.0

Studio 57

0.0