Biography

Despite the fact that hefty, beetle-browed character actor Robert Middleton (born Samuel G. Messer) was known for most of his career as a mop-faced villain capable of the most vicious and contemptible of crimes, the man himself was quite a happy and hearty gent who loved to play practical jokes, particularly on his family. Robert was educated at the University of Cincinnati and the Carnegie Institute of Technology, where he studied music. His deep, mellifluous voice earned him steady work as a radio announcer which, in turn, sparked his interest in acting.

In the early 1950s Middleton made it to Broadway, appearing in "Ondine." This in turn led to films and TV, where he solidified his evil image in such strong fare as The Desperate Hours (1955) as a sadistic killer, The Court Jester (1955) 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 66.
- IMDb mini biography by: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Robert Middleton was also in 2 episodes of The Big Valley (1965). The two episodes he appeared in were Down Shadow Street (1967), where he played Judge Tyrone, whose son was accused of murder. The second episode was Rimfire (1968) in which he played Sidney Glover, a wealthy miner. He was a big man and carried two big roles in these episodes very well.
- IMDb mini biography by: Anne Robinson

Robert Middleton (nee Sam Messer) had a deep sonorous voice and trained initially as an opera singer at Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music. He changed his name because all the "s" sounds in Sam Messer made hisses on radio; Robert Middleton is s-less (Middleton is the name of a street he'd walk past in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Clifton). One of his first national gigs was as the announcer for the 1952 Civil Defense educational children's film "Duck and Cover." In the early 1950s he worked with Rod Serling at Cincinnati's WLW (at 100,000 watts and clear channel, it dubbed itself "The Nation's Station"). Middleton claimed that Serling enticed him to move to L.A. with an offer of the announcer/narrator for the pilot of a TV program he was writing, what would become "The Twilight Zone", but money became tight and Serling decided to do it himself - becoming one of the most iconic voices in broadcast history, but ending Middleton's friendship with him.
- IMDb mini biography by: William Messer (nephew of Robert Middleton)