
Acting
Robert Middleton
Born 1911-05-13 · Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
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.
Acting credits
6.8In 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 Tarnished Angels
1957
4.7Brendan 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 take "No" for an answer and recruits other 4-F's to fight against Hitler.
Which Way to the Front?
1970
7.0Escaped convicts terrorize a suburban family they're holding hostage.
The Desperate Hours
1955
7.3A hapless carnival performer masquerades as the court jester as part of a plot against a usurper who has overthrown the rightful king of England.
The Court Jester
1955
7.1A 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.
A Big Hand for the Little Lady
1966
6.6The 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?
Friendly Persuasion
1956
7.0Police 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 Big Combo
1955
6.2After the Civil War, Confederate soldiers Clint and Vance Reno steal a Union payroll, leading to conflict when the younger marries the woman his older brother loves.
Love Me Tender
1956
4.4A 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.
The Silver Chalice
1954
6.3Cowboy John O'Hanlan is surprised to learn that someone's left him a business in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He sets out to claim it, only to discover it's a brothel.
The Cheyenne Social Club
1970
After the first atom bomb test, scientists realize the bomb was more powerful than they expected - which may have terrible results.
Nightmare at Ground Zero
1958
6.1Aging 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...
The Lonely Man
1957
6.3A rich landowner of Wyoming fights to prevent the Texas herds from trampling his rich meadows.
Cattle King
1963
6.5Robert 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.
The Proud Ones
1956
6.4Two mismatched buddies are mistaken for mob enforcers in Depression-era America.
Even Angels Eat Beans
1973
6.9A Mexican boy accused of rape and murder becomes a pawn for Communists and red-baiters. A courtroom drama set in 1947 and underlying post-WW2 acute problems facing the USA such as stormy race relations and the growing threat of local communism.
Trial
1955
7.2Fur-trapping partners stumble across a cache of gold, but their discovery quickly attracts every greedy villain in the territory.
Gold of the Seven Saints
1961
6.9Fictionalized account of Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr., who stole or created fictional identities and worked in a variety of occupations, most quite successfully.
The Great Impostor
1960
6.7Jake 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.
The Law and Jake Wade
1958
3.7At fictional Harrad College students learn about sexuality and experiment with each other. Based on the 1966 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.
The Harrad Experiment
1973
7.0An uncle's (Jack Warden) memories give strength to a New England family with four sons fighting in World War II.
Remember When
1974
6.4The Navy expects a veteran to pay for the ship he commanded, as they have no record of its return.
Don't Give Up the Ship
1959
6.9Judge Jim Scott must contend with the vicious relatives of a murderer he's about to sentence...and his unfaithful fiancee.
Day of the Badman
1958
6.3When 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.
Hell Bent for Leather
1960