Stapley



Stapley is the main antagonist of the Avengers episode Death's Door.

At the start of a peace conference hoping to unite Europe, Stapley comments that sending Sir Andrew Boyd through the door will be the "greatest moment of his life" when Andrew begins to feel scared and walks away.

Stapley then explains to the press that Andrew had a migraine as an excuse for delaying the conference. Noting his specialization in half-truthes, he hands Lord Melford another part of his report and leaves. Later a 6 o'clock, Stapley accompanies Andrew to the conference building who complains upon seeing a lion, he would be killed. Andrew Boyd is then run down by a car driven by Jepson.

That night, Stapley files another forged report to Melford who requests it be printed and is requested to make an 8 o'clock phone call. Just then, Stapley puts Melford through a nightmare involving an early morning call, Stapley having a shaving accident, the elevator not functioning, a broken suitcase, dragons and when Melford walks through the conference door a chandelier would drop and crush him to death.

The next morning, Stapley shows up in Melford's room with a bandage on the side of his face having supposedly cut himself shaving. At the conference building, one of Stapley's flunkies Alfred Becker presents him offering to open the conference door; But Melford flees the conference in terror.

Stapley then puts Melford through another nightmare, with a swinging clock, a bathroom mirror with things falling out, machine guns (which are actually jackhammers) and mud splashing onto Melford from a speeding car. When John Steed and Emma Peel investigate further, Stapley tries to dismiss them about a chandelier hanging in the conference room, when in fact the chandelier is hanging above the table.

Later, Emma Peel spots that Stapley must have sabotaged the elevator with a piece of paper, then the latter tries to have her killed by one of his chauffer henchmen Jepson. After Emma Peel breaks Jepson's neck, she and steed that Stapley kidnapped Melford from his room, took him to Warehouse 4 of the Temporary Storage Company on Western Lane.

Having gathered much evidence, Steed and Emma confront Stapley who says the conference is cancelled but the two agents wish to make a further statement about Stapley's evil plan to wreck the conference. Steed then realizes that Stapley never did cut himself shaving and are about to take him in when another henchman Haynes appears with a gun. Stapley and his partner try to take the two agents into the room to kill them, but a fight breaks out. While Emma fights Haynes, Steed and Stapley fight in the conference room where the villain's stray gun shot loosens the chandelier. Steed knocks Stapley onto the table and the chandelier drops onto him crushing the villain to death.