Robert Middleton
- Known for
- Acting
- Born
- May 13, 1911
- Died
- Jun 14, 1977 (aged 66)
- Place of birth
- Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
- Credits
- 91
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.
Known for
Filmography
James Dean: Forever Young
2005Movie
Self (archive footage)
The Lincoln Conspiracy
1977Movie
Edwin M. Stanton
Hunter
1977TV
The Mark of Zorro
1974Movie
Don Luis Quintero
Remember When
1974Movie
Kraus, the butcher
The Harrad Experiment
1973Movie
Sidney Bower
Even Angels Eat Beans
1973Movie
Angelo
Kung Fu
1972TV
Marshal Ford
Fair Play
1972Movie
Jova Purvis
Columbo
1971TV
Victor Norris
Alias Smith and Jones
1971TV
Which Way to the Front?
1970Movie
Colonico
Company of Killers
1970Movie
Owen Brady
The Cheyenne Social Club
1970Movie
Barkeeper - Great Plains Saloon
McCloud
1970TV
Elliott Jason
Mannix
1967TV
Jake Coryell
Mission: Impossible
1966TV
Clavering
The Monroes
1966TV
A Big Hand for the Little Lady
1966Movie
Dennis Wilcox
Get Smart
1965TV
The Whip
The Wild Wild West
1965TV
Emir El Emid
The Big Valley
1965TV
Judge Tyrone, Sidney Glover
The Adventures of Gallegher
1965TV
Dutch Mac
Daniel Boone
1964TV
Simon Brasher
For Those Who Think Young
1964Movie
Burford Sanford Cronin
Burke's Law
1963TV
Ezekiel Kindworth aka 'Rocky Mountain', Ragnar Windsor, Jed Hawkes
Vacation Playhouse
1963TV
Homer Ferguson
Cattle King
1963Movie
Clay Mathews
The Investigators
1961TV
John DeLuca
The New Breed
1961TV
Stanley Mannis
Target: The Corruptors!
1961TV
Gold of the Seven Saints
1961Movie
Amos Gondora
The Americans
1961TV
Witchcraft: The Doll in Brambles
1961Movie
Martin Plomb
The Great Impostor
1960Movie
R.C. Brown
Thriller
1960TV
Ohrback, Monsieur de Paris
The Tall Man
1960TV
Paul Mason
The Gun of Zangara
1960Movie
Mayor Anton J. Cermak
Hell Bent for Leather
1960Movie
Ambrose
The Detectives
1959TV
'Big Jim'
The Untouchables
1959TV
Mayer Wartel, Barney Loomis, Mayor Anton J. Cermak
Career
1959Movie
Robert Kensington
Adventures in Paradise
1959TV
Howard Bailey
The Rebel
1959TV
Arthur Sutro
Wichita Town
1959TV
Bonanza
1959TV
Sam Bryant, C.J. Shasta, Grizzly Martingale
Don't Give Up the Ship
1959Movie
Vice Adm. Philo Tecumseh Bludde
Rawhide
1959TV
Josh Green, Matt Harger, Judge John Jefferson Hogan, Duke Aberdeen
Bat Masterson
1958TV
Big Keel Roberts
No Place to Land
1958Movie
Buck LaVonne
Bitter Heritage
1958Movie
Luke Crocker
The Law and Jake Wade
1958Movie
Ortero
Nightmare at Ground Zero
1958Movie
Narrator
Day of the Badman
1958Movie
Charlie Hayes
The Tarnished Angels
1957Movie
Matt Ord
The Walter Winchell File
1957TV
Aaron Benjamin
So Lovely, So Deadly
1957Movie
Eddie Rocco
Suspicion
1957TV
Banton
Perry Mason
1957TV
Judge Daniel Redmond
Wagon Train
1957TV
Nate Burkett
The Death of Manolete
1957Movie
Perea
The Lonely Man
1957Movie
Ben Ryerson
Love Me Tender
1956Movie
Mr. Siringo
Friendly Persuasion
1956Movie
Sam Jordan
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
1956TV
Whit Gaynor
The Proud Ones
1956Movie
Honest John Barrett
Telephone Time
1956TV
Heinrich Schliemann
Red Sundown
1956Movie
Rufus Henshaw
The Court Jester
1955Movie
Sir Griswold
Matinee Theater
1955TV
Trial
1955Movie
A.A. "Fats" Sanders
The Desperate Hours
1955Movie
Sam Kobish
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955TV
Sam Klinker, Louis Koster, Cato Stone
MGM Parade
1955TV
Gunsmoke
1955TV
Jake Worth, Dutch George, Dorf
The Big Combo
1955Movie
Police Capt. Peterson
The Silver Chalice
1954Movie
Idbash
The Wonderful World of Disney
1954TV
Frank Davis, Dutch Mac
Climax!
1954TV
Sheriff
Studio 57
1954TV
Maggio
Confessions of a Nervous Man
1953Movie
The Manager
Letter to Loretta
1953TV
Henry Tremaine
Something For An Empty Briefcase
1953Movie
Sloane
General Electric Theater
1953TV
Lt. Toler, Innkeeper
Cavalcade of America
1952TV
William Harper
Duck and Cover
1952Movie
Narrator
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951TV
Sheriff Ed Mullen
Tales of Tomorrow
1951TV
Dr. John Borrow
Lux Video Theatre
1950TV
Titus Semple
Man Against Crime
1949TV
Joseph Merko
Suspense
1949TV
Bill West