Villain of the Month: Robert Strange
Back in the day a lot of character actors worked steadily if they had a certain look that set them apart from everyone, unlike the cookie cutter mentality of today where everyone seems to look alike. Anyway, back in the day if you were looking for a thin, older actor to play a less than honest banker, doctor or other solid citizen, more than likely you would call up Robert Strange.
Though he had a long career that spanned from the silent days till the end of the forties, he generally played bit parts in A Pictures like Frisco Kid (1935), High Sierra (1941) and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945); and minor supporting roles in B Pictures like The Saint Strikes Back (1939), The Mad Monster (1942) and Dead Men Walk (1943).
Strange’s bigget roles, and best parts, were at Republic in their serials. Starting with King of the Roya Mounted (1940), Strange put his nasty screen presence to good effect playing a Teutonic spy trying to steal a newly discovered mineral from Canada that can both cure infantile paralysis and magnatize torpedoes. His follow up was a bravara performance in Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), where he was the sneakiest and most sinister looking scientist among a group of suspects who might be The Scorpion, who was killing off the members of an archeology expedition to steal their lenses for a device that could be used to take over the world.
Perils of Nyoka (1942) gave Strange his most demanding role. He starts out as the leader of an Arab tribe that is fighting both the heroes and the villains who are trying to locate the lost tablets of Hyppocrates. Then about halfway through the serial it turns out he is the heroine’s long lost father suffering from amnesia. Once his memory is returned, he becomes a completely different person, showing he can play a loving and devoted father as well as a nasty killer. Strange’s final serial role was a minor one playing the lawyer called in to defend an arrested member of Lionel Atwill’s gang in Captain America (1943). Though he did pop up in other serials, when footage of him in a sub from King of the Royal Mounted showed in G-Men vs the Black Dragon (1943) and Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952) among others.
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