Robert Middleton

Robert Middleton

Birth : 1911-05-13, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Death : 1977-06-14

History

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.

Profile

Robert Middleton

Movies

The Lincoln Conspiracy
Edwin M. Stanton
Speculative Sunn Classics chestnut detailing a wide-ranging government conspiracy to murder the 16th American President and the subsequent cover up and escape of his killers.
The Mark of Zorro
Don Luis Quintero
The swishing fop Don Diego de la Vega becomes the swashbuckling masked hero Zorro when tyranny threatens his people in nineteenth-century California.
Remember When
Kraus, the butcher
An uncle's (Jack Warden) memories give strength to a New England family with four sons fighting in World War II.
The Harrad Experiment
Sid Bower
At fictional Harrad College students learn about sexuality and experiment with each other. Based on the 1962 book of the same name by Robert Rimmer, this movie deals with the concept of free love during the height of the sexual revolution which took place in the United States.
Even Angels Eat Beans
Angelo
Two nice guys, a wrestler and an Ice-cream vendor are mistaken for dangerous killers by an important local gangster, whose nickname is Sorriso. With the help of many coincidences they play along with Sorriso "working" for him, just to survive, but, when they receive the order to butcher the components of a very indigent family they are unmasked.
Fair Play
Jova Purvis
A young man arrives at the town of Fair Play to see his uncle. What he finds upon arriving is a town hiding a secret from any outsiders. The young man must uncover the truth the townspeople wish to keep hidden in order to save his uncle.
Which Way to the Front?
Colonico
Brendan Byers III, one of the richest men in America, has been pronounced 4-F and can't serve his country in its war against Hitler. Byers does not takes "No" for an answer and recruits other 4-F's to fight against Hitler.
Company of Killers
Owen Brady
A gunman working for a crime ring is hunted by both the police and his employers after a cop is murdered.
The Cheyenne Social Club
Barkeeper - Great Plains Saloon
Two cowboys inherit a "social club" specializing in satisfying men.
A Big Hand for the Little Lady
Dennis Wilcox
A naive traveler in Laredo gets involved in a poker game between the richest men in the area, jeopardizing all the money he has saved for the purpose of settling with his wife and child in San Antonio.
For Those Who Think Young
Burford Sanford Cronin
A wealthy young man tries to woo a university student, while her two uncles work to popularize a local club.
The Adventures of Gallegher
Dutch Mac
An energetic newspaper copyboy in 1889 wants to become a reporter, and he is soon more deeply involved in his stories than he had expected. When he discovers a bank robbery, he helps the reporter, Brownie, to apprehend the four-fingered culprit. Later he helps the police chief who has been framed, and tries to convince the authorities that he has discovered a wanted felon in town.
Cattle King
Clay Mathews
A rich landowner of Wyoming fights to prevent the Texas herds from trampling his rich meadows.
Gold of the Seven Saints
Amos Gondora
Fur-trapping partners stumble across a cache of gold, but their discovery quickly attracts every greedy villain in the territory.
Witchcraft
Martin Plomb
Madame Tirelou is a witch who will not allow her daughter Marie to marry her true love Louis. The witch puts a curse on Louis should he ever set eyes on Marie again. Louis enlists the help of his old friend Fred to break the witch's spell so the young lovers may finally marry. However, Madame Tirelou proves more powerful than non-believer Fred bargained for.
The Great Impostor
R.C. Brown
Fictionalized account of Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr., who stole or created fictional identities and worked in a variety of occupations, most quite successfully.
Hell Bent for Leather
Ambrose
When Clay Santell stops in the town of Sutterville after having his horse stolen, he is mistaken by townspeople for a murderer named Travers. The townspeople capture Santell, and turn him over to lawman Harry Deckett. Deckett, who is tired of chasing the real Travers, decides to kill Santell and pass him off as Travers. Santell escapes from Deckett, taking lovely Janet Gifford hostage in the process. Janet comes to believe Santell's story, and helps him in his struggle to prove his real identity.
Career
Robert Kensington
Playwright James Lee adapted his off-Broadway play for the screen in this high-strung adaptation, directed by Joseph Anthony. In this simplistic, backroom show-business-success saga, Anthony Franciosa plays Sam, a struggling young actor who will forsake his family and take any type of menial job in order to become a Broadway star. Dean Martin is on hand as Maury, an aspiring director also trying to claw his way up the ladder of success. When Maury gets his big break, Sam wants a part in his show, but when Maury, who is unwilling to cast Sam in the production, turns down Sam's request, Sam seduces and marries Maury's girlfriend (Shirley MacLaine). In spite of everything, Maury wants his girl back, and Sam agrees to a divorce on the stipulation that Maury cast him as the star in his next show. Once again, Maury reneges and, before Sam can exact his revenge, Uncle Sam comes to the rescue and he is drafted into the army.
Don't Give Up the Ship
Vice Adm. Philo Tecumseh Bludde
The Navy expects a veteran to pay for the ship he commanded, as they have no record of its return.
No Place to Land
Buck LaVonne
Director Albert C. Gannaway's 1958 melodrama, about the sordid private lives of California crop-dusting pilots, stars John Ireland, Mari Blanchard, Robert Middleton, Gail Russell and Jackie Coogan.
Bitter Heritage
Luke Crocker
A powerful story of the son of America's most famous outlaw: Jesse James. Jesse, Jr. struggles to return to the town which his father lived. His love interest is Elizabeth Montgomery.
The Law and Jake Wade
Ortero
Jake Wade breaks Clint Hollister out of jail to pay off an old debt, though it's clear there is some pretty deep hostility between them. They part, and Jake returns to his small-town marshal's job and his fiancée only to find he has been tracked there by Hollister. It seems they were once in a gang together and Jake knows where the proceeds of a bank hold-up are hidden. Hollister and his sidekicks make off into the hills, taking along the trussed-up marshal and his kidnapped bride-to-be to force the lawman to show them where the loot is.
Nightmare at Ground Zero
Narrator
After the first atom bomb test, scientists realize the bomb was more powerful than they expected - which may have terrible results.
Day of the Badman
Charlie Hayes
Judge Jim Scott must contend with the vicious relatives of a murderer he's about to sentence...and his unfaithful fiancee.
The Tarnished Angels
Matt Ord
In the 1930s, once-great World War I pilot Roger Shumann performs as a daredevil barnstorming pilot at aerial stunt shows while his wife, LaVerne, works as a parachutist. When newspaper reporter Burke Devlin arrives to do a story on the Shumanns’ act, he quickly falls in love with the beautiful--and neglected--LaVerne.
The Lonely Man
Ben Ryerson
Aging gunslinger Jacob Wade hopes to settle down with his estranged son, but his old enemies have other plans for him. Gunslinger Jacob Wade finds his long-abandoned son Riley, now a young man who hates his father but has nowhere else to go. Hoping to settle down, Jacob finds no town will have him. They end at Monolith, the ranch of Jacob's former girlfriend Ada, to whom he had no intention of returning. A mustang hunt finds Riley himself attracted to the shapely Ada...and Jacob having trouble with his eyesight. And his visions of a quiet life are doomed by the re-appearance of enemies from his past...
Friendly Persuasion
Sam Jordan
The story of a family of Quakers in Indiana in 1862. Their religious sect is strongly opposed to violence and war. It's not easy for them to meet the rules of their religion in everyday life but when Southern troops pass the area they are in real trouble. Should they fight, despite their peaceful attitude?
Love Me Tender
Mr. Siringo
At the end of the Civil War, a Confederate team is ordered to rob a Union payroll train but the war ends leaving these men with their Union loot, until the Feds come looking for it.
The Proud Ones
Honest John Barrett
Robert Ryan plays an aging sheriff responsible for law and order in a frontier cattle town. Virginia Mayo plays his fiancee. As if handling wild cattle drovers isn't enough, a crooked casino operator from Ryan's past comes to town. An early scuffle in the casino leaves Ryan with vision problems that interfere with his duties. Jeffrey Hunter who came to town with a cattle drive encounters Ryan, who killed Hunter's father when Hunter was young. Feelings of animosity soon change as Hunter begins to sense Ryan is telling the truth about his father. What follows is a plot that continues to thicken to the inevitable showdown.
Red Sundown
Rufus Henshaw
When his life is saved in a shootout by a fellow gunman whose life he in turn had saved, Alex Longmire promises to give up his way of life. Riding into town he finds the only job available is deputy to sheriff Jade Murphy, an honest man caught between small farmers and a local cattle baron. And he has a pretty daughter. So Longmire decides to stay and see if he can use his expertise with firearms for good.
The Court Jester
Sir Griswold
A hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against a usurper who has overthrown the rightful king of England.
Trial
A.A. "Fats" Sanders
A Mexican boy accused of rape and murder becomes a pawn for Communists and red-baiters.
The Desperate Hours
Sam Kobish
Escaped convicts terrorize a suburban family they're holding hostage.
The Big Combo
Police Capt. Peterson
Police Lt. Leonard Diamond vies to bring a clever, well connected, and sadistic gangster to justice all the while obsessing over the gangster's girlfriend.
The Silver Chalice
Idbash
A Greek artisan is commissioned to cast the cup of Christ in silver and sculpt around its rim the faces of the disciples and Jesus himself. He travels to Jerusalem and eventually to Rome to complete the task. Meanwhile, a nefarious interloper is trying to convince the crowds that he is the new Messiah by using nothing more than cheap parlor tricks.
Duck and Cover
Narrator
An instructional short aimed at school-aged children of the early 1950s that combines animation and live-action footage with voice-over narration to explain what to do to increase their chances of surviving the blast from an atomic bomb.