Barry Nelson (1920-2007)

It was announced Friday that the original James Bond, Barry Nelson passed away on 7 April 2007. According to a report on CommanderBond.net: "Nelson died on 7 April while traveling in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, his wife, Nansi Nelson, said Friday. The cause of death was not immediately known, she said."

When Ian Fleming published Casino Royale in 1953 he sold the rights to CBS for a reported $1000. They made a 1 hour version for their series Climax hosted by William Lundigan. They focused in on the center section of the book. That portion that took place in the casino. Peter Lorre was cast as LeChiffre. Barry Nelson was offered the role of 'Card Sharp' Jimmy Bond. To appeal to American audiences Bond was changed from a British to an American agent. Several other changes were made, including changing Felix Leiter to Clarence & making him British. & Vesper Lynd & French agent Matthis were combined into Valerie Matthis. The show aired on 21 October 1954. Unfortunately, the show wasn't as successful as Ian Fleming had hoped.

According to a report on IMDb.com for the TV version of Casino Royale: "Barry Nelson has said that his main impetus for taking the role was the opportunity to work with legendary actor Peter Lorre. Nelson had been a fan of the actor's great body of work and believed that if he didn't take this opportunity to work with him here it may not present itself again."

In my opinion, despite the radical changes & the usual goofs that occured in a live bradcast at that time, the show was still a worthy premier for James Bond. & Barry Nelson did a good job of being the 1st to bring James Bond to life on the screen. The script (again changes above noted aside) did an excellent job of capturing the portion of the novel they focused on. The limitations were the obvious ones resulting from the small budget the average mid-50s TV show had.

Barry Nelson was born Robert Haakon Nielsen on 16 April 1920, in Oakland, California. He graduated in 1941 from the University of California at Berkeley. MGM quickly signed him to a contract. Over the years he performed in films, on TV & on the stage. In 1978 he was nominated for the Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for "The Act. His co-star was Liza Minnelli.

Barry Nelson is the 2nd actor to play James Bond to have passed away, David Niven (Sir James Bond, Casino Royale, 1967) being the 1st. (Peter Sellers & Terrence Cooper from the same movie technically don't count as their character names were not originally James Bond but were changed to James Bond as a part of the plot line.)