Charles Middleton(1874-1949)

Charles Brown Middleton was born 7th October 1879. His father was a military man with a strong sense of discipline which conflicted with Charles' own outlook on how to live his life. At the age of twelve, he ran away to join a circus and looked after the elephants before moving into performing in dramatic vignettes between traditional acts. At eighteen, he formed his own stock company which toured the South, performing Shakespeare and self-penned melodramas. He worked his way onto the Vaudeville circuit, earning a reputation as a good actor which is how he met Stan Laurel. He appeared in some silent films in the 20's, but his career took off with sound as stage actors were in demand due to their vocal faculties. He had a very distinctive voice which marked him out from the competition. He appeared with three great film comedy teams: Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges. He was often cast as a 'heavy' and appeared in a lot of serials , including Dick Tracy, Batman, and Black Raven, but is probably best remembered as Ming the Merciless in three Flash Gordon serials of the 30's. He was never under contract, which allowed him to choose his own roles. However, a succession of unwise career choices led to less work in his later years, so for every good role there were some bad ones. In his final years, he took to the stage touring theatres, showing clips from his films and talking about his work. On 19th April 1949, he was admitted to hospital and had an operation for gangrene on his right foot. He died on the 22nd, the cause of death given as arteriosclerotic heart disease with which he'd been suffering from for 20 years.