Robert Middleton
Also Known As: Samuel Abraham Messer
Biography: 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.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Adult: No
Birthday: May 13, 1911
Age: 114 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: June 14, 1977
Popularity:
Known For:
The Harrad Experiment
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1973-05-11
Popularity:
The Big Combo
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-02-13
Popularity:
Even Angels Eat Beans
Overview: Two mismatched buddies are mistaken for mob enforcers in Depression-era America.
Genres: Crime Action Comedy
Original Language: it
Release Date: 1973-03-22
Popularity:
The Court Jester
Overview: 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.
Genres: Music Adventure Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-12-24
Popularity:
The Lonely Man
Overview: 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...
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-06-21
Popularity:
Friendly Persuasion
Overview: 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?
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-11-25
Popularity:
A Big Hand for the Little Lady
Overview: 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.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-06-08
Popularity:
The Law and Jake Wade
Overview: 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.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-06-06
Popularity:
The Tarnished Angels
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-11-21
Popularity:
The Great Impostor
Overview: Fictionalized account of Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr., who stole or created fictional identities and worked in a variety of occupations, most quite successfully.
Genres: Comedy Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-12-23
Popularity:
Love Me Tender
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama Western Music Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-11-15
Popularity:
The Desperate Hours
Overview: Escaped convicts terrorize a suburban family they're holding hostage.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-10-05
Popularity:
Remember When
Overview: An uncle's (Jack Warden) memories give strength to a New England family with four sons fighting in World War II.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-03-23
Popularity:
For Those Who Think Young
Overview: A wealthy young man tries to woo a university student, while her two uncles work to popularize a local club.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1964-06-01
Popularity:
The Proud Ones
Overview: 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.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-05-15
Popularity:
Don't Give Up the Ship
Overview: The Navy expects a veteran to pay for the ship he commanded, as they have no record of its return.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-07-03
Popularity:
Cattle King
Overview: A rich landowner of Wyoming fights to prevent the Texas herds from trampling his rich meadows.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-07-08
Popularity:
The Mark of Zorro
Overview: The swishing fop Don Diego de la Vega becomes the swashbuckling masked hero Zorro when tyranny threatens his people in nineteenth-century California.
Genres: Western Action Adventure TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1974-10-29
Popularity:
Red Sundown
Overview: 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.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-03-01
Popularity:
Career
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-10-08
Popularity:
The Death of Manolete
Overview: The story of the last hours in the life of Spain's most celebrated matador.
Genres: Drama TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-09-12
Popularity:
Gold of the Seven Saints
Overview: Fur-trapping partners stumble across a cache of gold, but their discovery quickly attracts every greedy villain in the territory.
Genres: Adventure Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-02-18
Popularity:
Company of Killers
Overview: A gunman working for a crime ring is hunted by both the police and his employers after a cop is murdered.
Genres: Drama Action Crime TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-08-26
Popularity:
No Place to Land
Overview: A cropduster pilot finds himself caught between two women—one who loves him and the other, who doesn’t handle rejection well, who’s out to destroy him.
Genres: Adventure Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-10-03
Popularity:
Trial
Overview: A 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.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1955-10-07
Popularity:
Which Way to the Front?
Overview: 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 take "No" for an answer and recruits other 4-F's to fight against Hitler.
Genres: Comedy War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-09-03
Popularity:
The Cheyenne Social Club
Overview: Two cowboys inherit a "social club" specializing in satisfying men.
Genres: Western Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1970-06-12
Popularity:
Hell Bent for Leather
Overview: 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.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1960-02-01
Popularity:
The Silver Chalice
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama Romance History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1954-12-20
Popularity:
Day of the Badman
Overview: Judge Jim Scott must contend with the vicious relatives of a murderer he's about to sentence...and his unfaithful fiancee.
Genres: Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-01-29
Popularity:
The Lincoln Conspiracy
Overview: Speculative hokum about John Wilkes Booth, murderer of Abraham Lincoln, escaped to Canada instead of being tracked down and killed soon after the assassination.
Genres: Drama Fantasy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1977-10-01
Popularity:
Fair Play
Overview: 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.
Genres: Comedy Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1972-01-01
Popularity:
Bitter Heritage
Overview: 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.
Genres: TV Movie Western
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-08-07
Popularity:
Nightmare at Ground Zero
Overview: After the first atom bomb test, scientists realize the bomb was more powerful than they expected - which may have terrible results.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-05-15
Popularity:
Witchcraft: The Doll in Brambles
Overview: Madame Tirelou is a witch who will not allow her daughter Marie to marry her one 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. This is actually the Un-Aired Pilot of what was planned to be a weekly television show to run in a 30 minute spot.
Genres: Horror TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-01-01
Popularity:
Duck and Cover
Overview: 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.
Genres: Animation Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-01-07
Popularity:
The Adventures of Gallegher
Overview: 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.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1965-01-24
Popularity:
Something For An Empty Briefcase
Overview: Joe wants a different future than one as a petty hoodlum and when he attempts to rob an aspiring dancer Noli, he glimpses the possibilities. He imagines purchasing a briefcase as a start but his crime partner is reluctant to let him go.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-07-17
Popularity: