First James Bond Died (Floungers took note)

[jake_fink]

That's right, Barry Nelson passed away about a week ago.

From The Independant:

Barry Nelson
MGM contract player and Broadway star who was the first actor to appear on screen as James Bond
Published: 16 April 2007
Robert Haakon Nielson (Barry Nelson), actor: born Oakland, California 16 April 1920; twice married; died 7 April 2007.

The actor Barry Nelson was an affable contract player at MGM during the Forties, and had a long career as a leading man in the theatre, winning a Tony nomination for his performance opposite Liza Minnelli in The Act (1978). He will be remembered, too, as the first actor to play James Bond on screen.

He played the debonair secret agent in a television production of Casino Royale, performed "live" as part of the Climax series in 1954, with Peter Lorre as a splendidly malevolent villain, Le Chiffre, and Linda Christian as the glamorous heroine. It swiftly and efficiently reduced the story to 50 minutes, without commercials, and though crude in some respects (there are moments when actors are seen waiting for their cues, and Lorre fluffs one important line), it played entertainingly and was easier to follow than the two versions for the big screen.

Of Scandinavian descent, Nelson was born Robert Haakon Nielson in California in 1920. Educated at the University of California, he played the title role in a college production of Macbeth that was seen by an MGM talent scout, who offered him a screen test. He made his film d?©but as an eager reporter in Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), the fourth film in the popular thriller series.

His first leading role was in George B. Seitz's A Yank on the Burma Road (1942), a "B" movie that became a surprise hit due to its timing. Based on the true story of a tough Chicago cab driver, Daniel Arnstein, and called China Caravan in the UK, the film was inspired by the reopening of the Burma Road, the 700-mile supply route over which war material was transported to China. Though a brisk low-budget movie, it attracted large audiences as the first film to deal with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Actually completed three weeks before the calamitous event, it was swiftly modified to incorporate the attack into the plot - just six changes were made, including a new line given to Nelson as he machine-gunned Japanese soldiers, "That's for Pearl Harbor!"

In 1943 Nelson enlisted in the Army Air Force, and he became one of the all-military cast of the Moss Hart play Winged Victory. It opened on Broadway in 1943, and the following year it was filmed by 20th Century-Fox. In 1946 Nelson returned to MGM to finish his contract - his final role for the studio was that of a detective and the heroine's sweetheart in Undercover Maisie (1947), the 10th and final film in the series about the misadventures of a sassy showgirl (Ann Sothern). Moss Hart then offered him the role of an aspiring playwright in his play Light Up The Sky (1948), which ran for nearly a year.

In Garson Kanin's comedy-drama The Rat Race (1950), Nelson starred as a na?Øve jazz musician who falls in love with a dance-hall hostess (Betty Field). It ran for only three months but was filmed in 1960 with Tony Curtis in Nelson's role. After making the film The Man with My Face (1951), he returned to Broadway in an enormous hit, F. Hugh Herbert's The Moon is Blue (1951), which ran for three years. Nelson played an architect who meets a young girl on the observation floor of the Empire State Building and is captivated by her frank views on virginity. While acting in the play, Nelson appeared in several television plays, and starred in the series The Hunter (1952-54) as a travelling businessman, a master of disguise who becomes involved in exotic adventures as he traps various villains.

He had an even bigger hit with My Favorite Husband (1953-55), in which he played a bank executive with a scatterbrained wife (played by Joan Caulfield for the first two seasons, then Vanessa Brown). The show was one of the last to be transmitted live. "There were no cue cards," said Nelson,

or anybody to throw you a line if you got stuck. And because it was live, every Saturday night, the possibility you'd make a fool of yourself coast to coast always existed.

Nelson said that he accepted the role of James Bond in the Climax episode "Casino Royale" only because Peter Lorre was to be in it. 'When I heard that he was connected with the venture, it made all the difference," he said.

I was initially disappointed with the script, and was amazed that Bond didn't have a British accent. Also, I had just come out of a show where I had a crew cut and couldn't in six days regrow my hair. Still, with the support of Lorre we did get the script changed, and while it's mainly just a curio today, I'm glad we did it. The big mistake CBS made came when they were afforded the opportunity to take an option on the next six Bond books, and decided against it.

One of the things the TV version accomplishes neatly is describing the rules of baccarat - Bond describes the game to his British contact as a means of cover when anyone is within earshot - so that the crucial card game that is the centrepiece of the plot is easier to understand than in the recent film.

Other television shows in which Nelson appeared included Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The June Allyson Show, Twilight Zone, The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote. On stage, he appeared in the London production of No Time for Sergeants (1956) at Her Majesty's Theatre, and on Broadway he starred in two enormous hits, Jean Kerr's Mary, Mary (1961), and Abe Burrows' Cactus Flower (1965).

In 1990 he was still acting, starring in a touring production of the play Lend Me a Tenor. One of his greatest triumphs was as the dedicated stage director in 42nd Street, in which he toured for over two years (1983-86).

Tom Vallance

Or see here: The first - and superior - thread.

 

[Dinerman]

Wasn't there a thread on this a couple weeks back?

 

[Feraud]

about Bond passing away or the Loungers not paying attention?

 

[Dinerman]

http://thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=18312

 

[Mike in Seattle]

http://thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=18312

Good memory, my friend! I was thinking the same thing...:eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[jake_fink]

Thank-you. I searched and found nada. Now I can edit.

 

[Martinis at 8]

Also if you buy/rent the old Casino Royale spoof starring Peter Sellers and David Niven, the old B&W Barry Nelson version comes with it.

M8

 

[Mark G]

For me it's hard to tell which show was worse, I find it difficult to sit through either one.