Barry Nelson

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Barry Nelson

Barry Nelson (born April 16, 1917 in San Francisco , California - † April 7, 2007 in Bucks County , Pennsylvania ; actually Robert Haakon Nielsen ) was an American actor . He is remembered above all as the first actor to play the secret agent James Bond in a TV adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale from 1954.

Life

Nelson began his acting career at the age of 15 portraying an 80-year-old man. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley in 1941, he received a contract of MGM - studios . Nelson's first film role was the character of Paul Clark in The Skinny Man's Shadow (1941) starring William Powell , Myrna Loy and Donna Reed . This joined in the same year the role of Lew Rankin in the film noir crime film The Dead Lives with Robert Taylor and Lana Turner .

During his military service in World War II, Nelson had in 1943 his debut on Broadway in the lead role of Bobby Grill in Moss Hart's play Winged Victory . His next role on Broadway was that of Peter Sloan in Hart's highly successful Light Up the Sky (1948). Nelson played another Broadway role in The Rat Race in 1941 . He then played a double role in the Ed Gardner- produced film noir The Man with My Face (1951).

After the film rights to the novel Casino Royale were sold to Gregory Ratoff in 1954 , they were brokered by the CBS for the production of a television series. Nelson was born in 1954 in an episode of the television series Climax! Which was produced by CBS from 1954 to 1958 . the first Bond actor, eight years before Sean Connery in Dr. No . The 1954 production had very little in common with the familiar image of Kino-Bonds. He was American by plot, was called “Jimmy” and worked for Combined Intelligence , a reference to the CIA . To date, Nelson is the only American who portrayed the character of James Bond. Misconduct Le Chiffre turned Peter Lorre is.

Nelson appeared regularly on American television in the 1960s, including in Alfred Hitchcock Presents , the series The Twilight Zone and the medical series Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare . He appeared on the hit CBS show What's My Line? (in Germany adapted as Was bin ich? ) initially as a guest and later worked there repeatedly as a member of the “advice team”. Nelson completed only a few film appearances in later years, an exception was his portrayal of hotel manager Stuart Ullman in Stanley Kubrick's horror film Shining . He had his last appearance on Broadway in 1986 in the hit musical 42nd Street .

Nelson was married twice: After divorcing the actress Teresa Celli (* 1924) between 1951 and 1965, he married Nansilee Hoy on November 12, 1992, with whom he lived until his death and commuted between his homes in New York and France . Nelson regularly attended events related to the American Civil War. Barry Nelson died in Pennsylvania nine days before his 90th birthday.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

Nelson was nominated for a Tony Award for his portrayal of Dan Connors in The Act (1977 with Liza Minnelli ) in the category "Best Actor in a Musical" .

literature

  • Ephraim Katz: The Film Encyclopedia. (Revised by Fred Klein and Ronald Dean Nolan). HarperCollins, 3rd Edition, 1998, ISBN 0-06-273492-X .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Nelson, Barry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nielsen, Robert Haakon (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH San Francisco , USA
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 2007
Place of death Bucks County , Pennsylvania