Professor Mortimer was an archaeologist.
Biography[]
Around 1923, Professor Mortimer made pioneering work in uncovering the fate of Pharaoh Cheops and Khephren's remains which hadn't been entombed within their pyramids but carried to a site known as the City of Beyond hidden in the Necropolis of Thebes. However, the archaeologist disappeared from Cairo during his expedition, and his research fell into the possession of an antiquities dealer named Ibrahim who realized its value to those seeking an intact Egyptian tomb.[1]
After Indiana Jones acquired Mortimer's notes weeks after the professor had gone missing, he and reporter friend Marya Smirnova found the City of Beyond where they discovered that Mortimer had reached the site but had been driven mad in the attempt. Dressed as a pharaoh, Mortimer kidnapped Smirnova and attempted to sacrifice her in an ritual in an effort to bring Cheops back from the dead which was the true purpose of the site.[1]
Jones, assisted by archaeologist rival Karl von Kraft trying to horn in on the find, rescued Smirnova and knocked Mortimer out but what no-one realized was that the underground city had long since been booby-trapped by the ancient Egyptians who had no inclination to see the return of their oppressive kings and carrying out the ritual triggered the collapsed the site. Although Jones and Smirnova managed to escape, the others were lost to the city's destruction.[1]