CHARLES MIDDLETON
October 3rd, 1874 -- April 22nd, 1949

Above: Charles Middleton in his most famous villain characterization (and the most famous villain characterization in serials): Ming the Merciless, Emperor of Mongo.

With his deep, menacing voice, his gaunt, lined features, and his evil grin and equally evil scowl, Kentucky-born Charles B. Middleton was Evil personified to the first generation of sound serial viewers, and continued to make a vivid impression on subsequent cliffhanger audiences up till 1947. Along with Roy Barcroft, he was the embodiment of the serial villain, but also like Barcroft, his on-screen persona was completely different from his off-screen one. Middleton was a loving father, husband, and grandfather (he and his grandson, current-day actor Burr Middleton, used to call each other "Old Pal" and "Little Pal"), and was always fondly spoken of by his many coworkers as a true gentleman. But to the kids watching the Saturday afternoon serials, Middleton was the Bad Guy, and one of the most frightening (and memorable) ones they'd ever seen. And the most memorable of all Middleton's bad guys was Ming the Merciless in FLASH GORDON, so memorable, in fact, that Middleton's Ming is probably the serial character that most non-fans are most likely to have heard of, even today.

Charles, believe it or not, was footloose and romantic as a boy, and actually ran away from home to join the circus at one period in his childhood. He performed in other circuses and carnivals as he grew to manhood, and began acting in touring theatrical companies, even playing leading man roles when required to. His troupes toured many of the toughest towns in the South; for protection against over-stimulated hecklers who had a tendency to get rough, Charles always carried a small derringer up his sleeve while performing. He met his future wife, Clara Meyer, while working for one of the theatrical groups, and they formed their own comedy act and began touring on their own. By 1920, the Middletons had found their way to Hollywood, and it was there that Charles began the film career that would make him a serial legend. Interestingly, his first serial was not FLASH GORDON, as some believe, but THE MIRACLE RIDER (Mascot, 1935), in which he played Zaroff, a master criminal with dreams of immense power who attempted to drive the Ravenhead Indians off their reservation in order to get control of the vast deposits of the explosive X-94 on it. Texas Ranger Tom Morgan (screen legend Tom Mix, in his final film) put a stop to Zaroff's mad plans and brought Middleton to bay in a thrilling car-chase climax. Middleton, already an old acting pro of 62 by the time he made MIRACLE RIDER, played his role expertly, balancing his character between madness and genius in a twisted fashion that would become the trademark of all his other serial heavies. THE MIRACLE RIDER, thanks to Middleton and to Mix, is probably the best loved of all of Mascot's twenty-four serials.

Above: Charles Middleton (left) as the villainous Zaroff, confronts Tom Mix (right) while Jason Robards Sr. (center) watches in THE MIRACLE RIDER (Mascot, 1935). Robards, of course, is the father of acclaimed actor Jason Robards (HOUR OF THE GUN, JULIUS CAESAR, and many other films).

Middleton's next serial would become his most famous. The historic FLASH GORDON (Universal, 1936), based on the comic strip by Alex Raymond was a fantasy thriller the likes of which had not been seen on screen before. It practically defined the serial genre for the rest of the era, and gave the cliffhanger a shot in the arm that probably saved it from extinction. Middleton was Ming the Merciless, ruler of Mongo, who was planning the conquest of Earth and the subjugation of its peoples. Only two Earthmen stood in Ming's way-- athlete Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe) and brilliant scientist Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon). With the help of Thun, ruler of the Lion People (James Pierce), and Prince Barin, the rightful heir to the throne of Mongo (Richard Alexander), Flash, Zarkov, and Flash's girlfriend Dale Arden (Jean Rogers) thwart Ming's plans. Ming, in addition to battling these pesky folks, also has to contend with his daughter Aura (Priscilla Lawson), who falls in love with Flash and keeps rescuing him from her father's well-contrived death traps. As FLASH GORDON defined the serial genre and Crabbe and Rogers defined the serial hero and heroine, Charles defined the serial villain with his one-of-a-kind portrayal of the meglomaniacal, egotistical, but devilishly clever Ming, always indulging in an evil chuckle when ordering Flash's death and constantly pursuing Dale with his slimy attentions, as well as always confidently proclaiming his faith in his own scientific genius and ability to conquer and subjugate any enemy. When Ming was consumed in flames at the end of the serial, audiences breathed a sigh of relief, but both Ming and Middleton would be heard from again.

Above: Al Ferguson (far left) and the High Priest (Lon Poff) listen as Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton, seated) demands the assistance of Dr. Zarkov (Frank Shannon, far right) in his plan to conquer the world in this scene from FLASH GORDON (Universal, 1936).

In 1938, Charles had a second go at the part of Ming, in Universal's 15-chapter cliffhanger FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS. Ming, still alive despite his apparent demise at the end of FLASH GORDON, headed to Mars and formed an alliance with Martian queen Azura (Beatrice Roberts) to draw off “nitron” (nitrogen) from the Earth’s atmosphere. Azura intends to use the nitron to power weapons for a war against her Martian enemies, the Clay People, while Ming’s principal interest in the scheme is the resultant destruction it will cause Earth, the home planet of his mortal enemies Flash and Zarkov. However, those mortal enemies, along with Dale and Prince Barin, interfered in the Emperor’s plans again. Despite their opposition, Ming temporarily gained the upper hand towards the end of the serial when he successfully eliminated Azura (a goal he had been covertly trying to achieve from the start) and persuaded the Martian nobles to declare him king of their planet. However, Flash managed to expose Ming’s agency in the death of Azura, and the thwarted villain attempted to destroy both Mars and Earth in frustration. Ming’s Martian accomplice Tarnak, hitherto loyal to Ming, balked at this and locked his former master in a disintegration chamber and apparently vaporized him. Middleton played Ming this second time with all the relish and energy he had displayed in the first, and was faced with an even bigger acting challenge this time, since, in order to keep Queen Azura on his side, Ming was forced to assume a facade of sanity and sly politeness while secretly carrying on in his old maniacal fashion.

Above: Charles Middleton (right), playing Ming the Merciless in FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (Universal, 1938), grapples with Flash Gordon (Buster Crabbe) while Queen Azura (Beatrice Roberts) attempts to interfere between them.

Middleton's second 1938 serial was also a Universal--this time the Western chapterplay FLAMING FRONTIERS. Charles played Ace Dagget, a ruthless frontier businessman and outlaw leader, who stopped at nothing to get hold of a gold mine discovered by Tom Grant (Ralph Bowman), brother of heroine Mary Grant (Eleanor Hansen). Middleton did his best to overcome both rival villain James Blaine and hero Johnny Mack Brown, and came within an inch of getting Grant to sign over his mine to him, but was thwarted at the last moment. For some reason, FLAMING FRONTIERS is Middleton's least known serial, despite that fact that he played such a large, meaty part in it. It’s a very enjoyable cliffhanger that deserves to be better known.

Above: Ace Daggett (Charles Middleton, right) confers with an Indian chief (Chief Many Treaties) in FLAMING FRONTIERS (Universal, 1938).

Charles made one more serial in 1938--DICK TRACY RETURNS, which marked the first of three times he worked for Republic Pictures. He was given another unique villain role as Pa Stark, a gangster and racketeer who trained each of his five sons as a criminal, and led them in committing many well-planned crimes. After Pa's youngest son Kid (Ned Glass) brutally shoots rookie G-man Ron Merton (Dave Sharpe) during an armored car robbery, Pa sneaks into the hospital and unplugs the iron lung of the still-living G-man in order to prevent him from identifying the Starks as the armored car robbers. This vicious act prompts Ron's mentor, Dick Tracy (Ralph Byrd) to go after the Stark gang. Tracy brings about the arrest, conviction, and execution of Kid, and Pa in turn swears vengeance on Tracy, and the two battle it out for the rest of the serial. Pa's other sons are killed off in the process, and Pa develops an increasing hatred of Tracy, blaming the G-man for his son's deaths, never thinking that his raising of his sons is the real reason for their deaths. Middleton's frightening portrayal of Pa was one of his best bad guy characterizations; seldom has there been a more murderous and vengeful villain featured in a cliffhanger.

Above: Ralph Byrd, right, is in real trouble, as the evil face of Pa Stark (Charles Middleton) peers at him through the window of a paint-removing chamber preparatory to gassing him in this scene from DICK TRACY RETURNS (Republic, 1938).

Middleton was so convincing as Pa Stark that Republic signed him to play another villain the following year--Harry Crowel, alias 39-0-13, in DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE. Crowel, a former employee of multi-millionaire Horace Granville (Miles Mander), was sent to prison for embezzling but escaped and returned to wreak vengeance on Granville for "unjustly" sending him to jail. Using his prison number (30-0-13) as an alias and imprisoning Granville in a specially constructed jail cell beneath the millionaire's own house (the cell is a replica of Crowel's own in prison), Crowel masquerades as Granville with the help of a life-mask and begins a systematic campaign to destroy his captive's enterprises. However, he makes three new enemies when he burns the Granville Amusement Pier: the Daredevils of the Red Circle (Charles Quigley, Herman Brix, and Dave Sharpe), acrobatic performers at the pier, vow to bring 39-0-19 to justice when Quigley's young brother (Robert Winkler) is killed in the fire, and the three acrobats unmask 39-0-13 with the help of a mystery figure known as the Red Circle. Once again, Middleton's characterization was a truly scary one; 39-0-13's frequent tormenting of his prisoner Granville by showing him newspapers that tell of the wrecks of his various businesses was but one of the cruel traits exhibited by Middleton's ghoulish, revenge-bent arch-criminal.

Above: Charles Middleton as Harry Crowel, alias 39-0-13, in DARDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (Republic, 1939). This portrait comes from the prison mug shot of Middleton shown in the first chapter.

Above: Charles Middleton gloatingly demonstrates his death-dealing, gas-releasing machine to an offscreen Miles Mander in DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (Republic, 1939).

Middleton made his last serial for Universal in 1940; appropriately, he played Ming the Merciless once again. FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE was the third and last of Universal's Flash Gordon serials, and, as in the first two, Middleton matched wits with Buster Crabbe as Flash and Frank Shannon as Dr. Zarkov. This time, Ming, claiming the grandiose title of "The Universe" for himself (hence the title) was aiming at a conquest of the entire galaxy. It was never explained how the Emperor escaped death in the disintegration chamber at the end of the last Gordon serial, but here he was, alive and scheming as ever, using the Purple Death, a hideous form of poisonous gas, in an attempt to bend all his enemies to his will. For the third and final time, however, Flash defeated Ming, and the Emperor was killed in a rocketship explosion--and this time he never returned.

Above, from left to right: Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton), Count Korro (Sigurd Nilssen), Captain Torch (Don Rowan), Ronal (Donald Curtis), and Captain Sudan (William Royle) in FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (Universal, 1940). Ming is ordering his henchmen Torch and Sudan (Sudan is actually on the good guys’ side) to subject Korro and Ronal to a deadly Purple Death experiment.

Charles was back at Republic in 1942, playing the action heavy, Cassib, in the Arabian adventure serial PERILS OF NYOKA. At first glance, Middleton might seem miscast as the henchman, but it was a stroke of casting genius on Republic's part--the dour Middleton was absolutely perfect for the part of the grim, sadistic Arab, and made an excellent cohort to Arab ruler Vultura (Lorna Gray) as she harassed the Campbell Expedition (which included heroine Kay Aldridge and hero Clayton Moore) in her attempt to find the lost tablets of Hippocrates, which gave the location of a fabled and priceless treasure. PERILS OF NYOKA was a colorful, action-packed serial, and a good farewell Republic outing for Charles.

Above: The white-robed Charles Middleton stands by his evil boss, Lorna Gray, as they interrogate Robert Strange (behind bars) in this scene from PERILS OF NYOKA (Republic, 1942).

Middleton's remaining serials were all made at Columbia Pictures, and none of them (except one) gave him as much screen time as had his roles at Republic and Universal, but he always did his best to make the parts stand out. For instance, in THE BATMAN (Columbia, 1943), the first screen adaptation of Bob Kane's comic book character, Charles played Ken Colton, an old prospector and mine owner whose pitchblende mine becomes a target of Japanese spy Dr. Daka (J. Carroll Naish). Middleton only appeared in the middle section of the serial (Chapters Five, Six, and Seven) but he made a vivid impression as the colorful Colton, and even created a little gimmick of his own for the character: Colton carried a small derringer that he used to defend himself against the spies on several occasions. The derringer was Charles' own; the same one he carried during his theatrical touring days. It was a good little "guest appearance", and the first time that Charles had played a good guy in a serial.

Above: The bearded Charles Middleton gets the drop on J. Carroll Naish in THE BATMAN (Columbia, 1943).

Middleton made two serials for Columbia in 1944--THE DESERT HAWK and BLACK ARROW. In the first, he played a good guy--an Arab merchant who tried to help wrongfully deposed Caliph Gilbert Roland regain his throne--and met with the same fate as he had in BATMAN, being killed by the henchmen of Roland’s usurping twin brother in Chapter 5. In BLACK ARRORW, Charles played a good guy again, but this time managed to survive throughout the serial, which dealt with the attempts of a scheming badman (Kenneth MacDonald) to stir up an Indian war, Middleton played Tom Whitney, an upright, courageous Indian Agent who aided hero Black Arrow (Robert Scott), the adopted son of a murdered Indian chief (Chief Thundercloud) in his attempts to prevent war between the Indians and the settlers. In the end, Middleton was revealed to be Black Arrow's real father, which I'm sure was a big surprise for the kids watching the serial, (Ming as the hero's father?!), but Middleton made his good guy part totally credible.

Above: Kenneth MacDonald (left) chats with Charles Middleton in BLACK ARROW (Columbia, 1944).

Middleton's next serial, WHO'S GUILTY (Columbia, 1945), gave him an opportunity to be menacing again as Patton, a sneaky butler, but he was only one of many suspects who slunk around in sinister fashion and made it very difficult for detective hero Robert Kent to solve a convoluted murder mystery. WHO'S GUILTY was Columbia's producer Sam Katzman's attempt at producing a whodunit serial, and is one of those cliffhangers that most folks tend to love or hate. Even those who hate it tend to enjoy Middleton's smooth performance as Patton.

Above: Charles Middleton in a publicity still for WHO'S GUILTY (Columbia, 1945).

Charles' final serial, JACK ARMSTRONG (Columbia, 1947) gave him a chance to go out in grand style. Hired at the last minute to replace the ailing Wheeler Oakman as head villain (Oakman was then demoted to secondary bad guy, but his name still appeared high in the cast while Middleton was unbilled), Middleton played Jason Grood, owner of a trading post on a tropical island who had plans for conquering the world with an "aeroglobe", a rocketship armed with a death ray which he could use to annihilate any nation that opposed him. Charles, though over 70 years old by this time, gave the part his best, stealing the serial from the rest of the cast, including quite competent actor John Hart as Jack Armstrong, who defeated Grood and his gang (including John Merton and Jack Ingram, who had played two of Middleton's sons in DICK TRACY RETURNS) with the help of his pal Billy (Joe Brown Jr.) and Billy's Uncle Jim (Pierre Watkin). Grood was a power-mad genius in the best Ming tradition, and a perfect character for Middleton to play in his last serial.

Above: Would-be world conqueror Jason Grood (Charles Middleton) prepares to broadcast his ultimatum to the world at large in the last chapter of JACK ARMSTRONG (Columbia, 1947), Middleton's final serial.

Charles continued acting till his death in 1949, his last appearance on screen being a bit in the Western THE LAST BANDIT. Middleton's legacy lives on however. In FLASH GORDON and his subsequent cliffhangers, he truly defined the part of serial villain, paving the way for future villainous greats such as Roy Barcroft and Eduardo Cianelli. A consummate actor, a menacing on-screen presence, and an off-screen nice guy, Charles Middleton was and is a true giant of the serial field, and cliffhangers would not have been the same without him. Thanks, Old Pal.

Above: Middleton, as Pa Stark (second from left) plots how to spring his son Kid from jail as Dude Stark (Jack Roberts, far left) reads of the discovery of a key witness against Kid. From left to right, Stark's other sons are Champ (John Merton), Slasher (Jack Ingram) and Trigger (Ray Bennett). This is a lobby card from DICK TRACY RETURNS (Republic, 1938).

Below: Emperor Ming the Merciless (Charles Middleton) fiendishly turns the controls of a disintegration chamber that will (he hopes) rid him of that pesky Flash Gordon once and for all. There’s one thing you can say for Ming--he never stopped trying!