Charles B. Middleton
Encyclopedia
Charles B. Middleton was an American
stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, Charles Middleton appeared in nearly two hundred films as well as numerous plays. He is perhaps best remembered for his role as the villainous emperor Ming the Merciless
in the Flash Gordon series.
, Charles Middleton worked in a traveling circus
, in vaudeville
, and acted in live theatre before he turned to motion pictures
in 1920.
Middleton's career as a character actor came into full flower with the advent of sound movies. His ominous baritone voice was perfect for villainous roles, and he became an excellent foil for comedy stars Harold Lloyd
, Eddie Cantor
, Wheeler & Woolsey
, and Laurel and Hardy
.
He then was cast in Warner Bros.' 1932
hit: The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
, opposite Ann Dvorak
and Richard Cromwell
. Other notable performances by Middleton during this period were both released the very next year from Paramount Pictures
: first as "the district attorney" in This Day and Age, directed by Cecil B. DeMille
and then as "the prosecutor" opposite The Marx Brothers in Duck Soup (1933). He also played Sheriff Ike Vallon, the official who tries to arrest Julie La Verne (Helen Morgan
) and her husband for being illegally married, in Universal Pictures
' classic 1936
screen version of the musical Show Boat
.
Middleton's granite-hard features resembled those of Abraham Lincoln
. He played Lincoln in a public-service short subject, The Road Is Open Again, appeared in a rare comic role as an actor exasperated at being typecast as Lincoln in the 1937 comedy Stand-In, and played Lincoln's father in the film version of Robert E. Sherwood
's Abe Lincoln in Illinois
(1940).
Middleton was also featured in many serial adventures from 1935 to 1947. He is most famous for his villainous role as Ming the Merciless
, the evil adversary of Buster Crabbe
in the three Flash Gordon
serials: Flash Gordon
(1936), Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars
(1938), and 1940's Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
. The first Flash Gordon serial has the honor of having been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
. Middleton was also featured in such serials as Dick Tracy Returns
, Daredevils of the Red Circle
, and Jack Armstrong
.
Charles Middleton died of a heart attack
in Los Angeles
and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
in Hollywood, California
next to his wife of many years, stage and film actress Leora Spellman
.
of the James Bond
films mixed the Ian Fleming
real-life book character and Middleton's Emperor Ming attributes to create the screen persona for Bond's archenemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
stage and film actor. During a film career that began at age 46 and lasted almost 30 years, Charles Middleton appeared in nearly two hundred films as well as numerous plays. He is perhaps best remembered for his role as the villainous emperor Ming the Merciless
Ming the Merciless
Ming the Merciless is a fictional character who first appeared in the Flash Gordon comic strip in 1934. He has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serials, TV shows and film adaptation.- First appearance :...
in the Flash Gordon series.
Biography
Born in Elizabethtown, KentuckyElizabethtown, Kentucky
Elizabethtown is a city in and the county seat of Hardin County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,531 at the 2010 census, making it the eleventh-largest city in the state...
, Charles Middleton worked in a traveling circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...
, in vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
, and acted in live theatre before he turned to motion pictures
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
in 1920.
Middleton's career as a character actor came into full flower with the advent of sound movies. His ominous baritone voice was perfect for villainous roles, and he became an excellent foil for comedy stars Harold Lloyd
Harold Lloyd
Harold Clayton Lloyd, Sr. was an American film actor and producer, most famous for his silent comedies....
, Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor
Eddie Cantor was an American "illustrated song" performer, comedian, dancer, singer, actor and songwriter...
, Wheeler & Woolsey
Wheeler & Woolsey
Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey were a famous American film comedy team of the 1930s....
, and Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy
Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...
.
He then was cast in Warner Bros.' 1932
1932 in film
-Events:*Cary Grant's film career begins*Katharine Hepburn's film career begins*Shirley Temple's film career begins*Disney released Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon in three-strip Technicolor film.*Santa, first sound film made in Mexico released....
hit: The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
The Strange Love of Molly Louvain
The Strange Love of Molly Louvain is a 1932 film directed by Michael Curtiz....
, opposite Ann Dvorak
Ann Dvorak
Ann Dvorak was an American film actress.Asked how to pronounce her adopted surname, she told The Literary Digest: "My name is properly pronounced vor'shack. The D remains silent...
and Richard Cromwell
Richard Cromwell (actor)
Richard Cromwell, born LeRoy Melvin Radabaugh , was an American actor. His family and friends called him Roy, though he was also professionally known and signed autographs as Dick Cromwell. Cromwell's career was at its pinnacle with his work in Jezebel with Bette Davis and Henry Fonda and again...
. Other notable performances by Middleton during this period were both released the very next year from Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
: first as "the district attorney" in This Day and Age, directed by Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
and then as "the prosecutor" opposite The Marx Brothers in Duck Soup (1933). He also played Sheriff Ike Vallon, the official who tries to arrest Julie La Verne (Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s...
) and her husband for being illegally married, in Universal Pictures
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
' classic 1936
1936 in film
The year 1936 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*May 29 - Fritz Lang's first Hollywood film Fury, starring Spencer Tracy and Bruce Cabot, is released.*November 6 - first Porky Pig animated cartoon...
screen version of the musical Show Boat
Show Boat (1936 film)
Show Boat is a 1936 film based on the musical play by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II , which the team adapted from the novel by Edna Ferber....
.
Middleton's granite-hard features resembled those of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
. He played Lincoln in a public-service short subject, The Road Is Open Again, appeared in a rare comic role as an actor exasperated at being typecast as Lincoln in the 1937 comedy Stand-In, and played Lincoln's father in the film version of Robert E. Sherwood
Robert E. Sherwood
Robert Emmet Sherwood was an American playwright, editor, and screenwriter.-Biography:Born in New Rochelle, New York, he was a son of Arthur Murray Sherwood, a rich stockbroker, and his wife, the former Rosina Emmet, a well-known illustrator and portrait painter known as Rosina E. Sherwood...
's Abe Lincoln in Illinois
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (film)
Abe Lincoln in Illinois is a 1940 biographical film which tells the story of the life of Abraham Lincoln from his departure from Kentucky until his election as President of the United States....
(1940).
Middleton was also featured in many serial adventures from 1935 to 1947. He is most famous for his villainous role as Ming the Merciless
Ming the Merciless
Ming the Merciless is a fictional character who first appeared in the Flash Gordon comic strip in 1934. He has since been the main villain of the strip and its related movie serials, TV shows and film adaptation.- First appearance :...
, the evil adversary of Buster Crabbe
Buster Crabbe
Clarence Linden "Buster" Crabbe was an American athlete and actor, who starred in a number of popular serials in the 1930s and 1940s.-Birth:...
in the three Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
serials: Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon (serial)
Flash Gordon is a 1936 science fiction film serial. Told in 13 installments, it was the first screen adventure for the comic-strip character Flash Gordon, and tells the story of his first visit to the planet Mongo and his encounter with the evil Emperor Ming the Merciless. Buster Crabbe, Jean...
(1936), Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars
Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars
Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars is a 1938 serial film of 15 episodes, based on the comic strip Flash Gordon. It is the second of three Flash Gordon serials made between 1936 and 1940....
(1938), and 1940's Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe is a 1940 twelve episode serial film about Flash Gordon. It was the last of three Flash Gordon serials made from 1936 to 1940. The serial was produced and copyrighted by Universal Pictures....
. The first Flash Gordon serial has the honor of having been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
National Film Registry
The National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
. Middleton was also featured in such serials as Dick Tracy Returns
Dick Tracy Returns
Dick Tracy Returns is a Republic Movie serial based on the Dick Tracy comic strip. It was the eleventh of the sixty six serials Republic produced and a sequel to the 1937 serial Dick Tracy, with Ralph Byrd reprising his role as the title character...
, Daredevils of the Red Circle
Daredevils of the Red Circle
Daredevils of the Red Circle is a 12-Chapter Republic Movie Serial starring Charles Quigley, David Sharpe, Herman Brix and Charles Middleton. It was directed by William Witney and John English and is often considered one of the better serials produced by Republic...
, and Jack Armstrong
Jack Armstrong (serial)
Jack Armstrong is a Columbia film serial.-Plot:Vic Hardy, a scientist working for Jim Fairfield's aviation company, is kidnapped by Jason Grood's gang after discovering radiation emitting from their secret island base...
.
Charles Middleton died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, originally called Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery, is one of the oldest cemeteries in Los Angeles, California. It is located at 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Hollywood...
in Hollywood, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
next to his wife of many years, stage and film actress Leora Spellman
Leora Spellman
Leora Spellman was an American vaudeville performer and stage and film actor.Born Leora Theresa Spellmyer in Bonne Terre, Missouri she began singing on stage as a child and as a young lady began working in vaudeville where she met and married fellow performer Charles Middleton...
.
Influence
It is believed that the producer Harry SaltzmanHarry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman was a Canadian theatre and film producer best known for his mega-gamble which resulted in his co-producing the James Bond film series with Albert R...
of the James Bond
James Bond (film series)
The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
films mixed the Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
real-life book character and Middleton's Emperor Ming attributes to create the screen persona for Bond's archenemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional character and a supervillain from the James Bond series of novels and films, who was created by Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory. An evil genius with aspirations of world domination, he is the archenemy of the British Secret Service agent James Bond and is arguably...
.