Charles Middleton (actor)

Charles Brown Middleton (October 3, 1874 – April 22, 1949) was an American stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, he appeared in nearly 200 films as well as numerous plays.[1] Sometimes credited as Charles B. Middleton, he is perhaps best remembered for his role as the villainous emperor Ming the Merciless in the three Flash Gordon serials made between 1936 and 1940.

Charles Middleton
Middleton in 1922
Born
Charles Brown Middleton

(1874-10-03)October 3, 1874
Elizabethtown, Kentucky, U.S.
DiedApril 22, 1949(1949-04-22) (aged 74)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeHollywood Forever Cemetery
OccupationActor
Years active1920–1949
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1908; died 1945)​
Children1

Career

Born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Middleton worked in a traveling circus, in vaudeville, and acted in live theatre before he turned to motion pictures in 1920.[2] Middleton's success as a character actor, however, did not become firmly established until the sound era in films. He became a foil for comedy stars Harold Lloyd, Eddie Cantor, Wheeler & Woolsey, and Laurel and Hardy.

Actress Carmen D'Antonio with Middleton as Emperor Ming in the 1940 serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe

Middleton was cast in Warner Bros 1931 film Safe in Hell as well as in their 1932 hit The Strange Love of Molly Louvain opposite Ann Dvorak and Richard Cromwell. In Pack Up Your Troubles, he portrays a villainous welfare association officer, the foil of Laurel & Hardy. He is also the district attorney in Cecil B. DeMille's 1933 film This Day and Age; and he appears opposite The Marx Brothers in Duck Soup (also 1933), performing as the stern prosecutor of Freedonia. In Universal Pictures' classic 1936 screen version of the musical Show Boat, he is Sheriff Ike Vallon, the official who tries to arrest Julie La Verne (Helen Morgan) and her husband for being illegally married.

Since Middleton's facial features generally resembled those of Abraham Lincoln, he was cast to portray Lincoln in the 1933 public-service short The Road Is Open Again.[3] Four years later, in an uncredited role in the comedy Stand-In, he appears as an actor dressed as Lincoln who complains of being typecast as the former president.[4] Middleton's association with Lincoln did not end there, although in the 1940 feature film Abe Lincoln in Illinois, he performs not as Abe but as Thomas, Lincoln's father.

Middleton also has prominent roles in many serials from 1935 to 1947. He is especially well known for his characterization of Ming the Merciless, the evil adversary of the heroic outer-space adventurer Flash Gordon. He appears as Ming in three related serials: Flash Gordon (1936), Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938), and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940). Some of the other serials in which Middleton can be seen include Dick Tracy Returns, Daredevils of the Red Circle, and Jack Armstrong.[5] He also portrays the ranch foreman Buck Peters in the 1935 movie Hopalong Cassidy Enters, which is the first entry in that long-running Western series.

Death

Middleton's grave site is located in Hollywood Forever Cemetery and is situated next to the grave of his wife of many years, stage and film actress Leora Spellman.[2]

Selected filmography

See also

References
  1. Kinnard, Roy; Crnkovich, Tony; Vitone, R. J. (2008). The Flash Gordon Serials, 1936 - 1940: A Heavily Illustrated Guide (Reprint of the illustrated casebound ed.). Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-7864-3470-1. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  2. Ellenberger, Allan R. (2001). Celebrities in Los Angeles Cemeteries: A Directory. McFarland. p. 140. ISBN 9780786409839. Retrieved April 15, 2017.
  3. The Road is Open Again, PublicResourceOrg, digital copy of 1933 public-service short, YouTube, subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., Mountain View, California; retrieved October 25, 2017.
  4. Stand-In (1937), (TCM), Time Warner, New York, N.Y. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
  5. Cline, William C. (2000). Serials-ly Speaking : Essays on Cliffhangers. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. pp. 127–128. ISBN 0-7864-0918-5. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
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