One year ago: Joseph Wiseman

Playing the title character in the James Bond film "Dr. No"  brought actor Joseph Wiseman recognition. But his career was far more than one villainous part, with performances on Broadway and in several other movies.

Wiseman, who died a year ago at 91, viewed the role with "great disdain," said his daughter, Martha Graham Wiseman.

He told The Times in 1992: "I had no idea it would achieve the success it did." His performance in the 1962 film matched him against Sean Connery, who was making his debut as Bond.

Wiseman's Broadway appearances included "Antony and Cleopatra," "Detective Story," "The Lark," "Incident at Vichy," "In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer" and a revival of "The Tenth Man."

He also was in several films and television shows.

His obituary appeared in The Times on Oct. 21, 2009.

-- Keith Thursby

 Photo: Joseph Wiseman as Dr. No

 

 

 

Comments

[Mike Dudnikov]

Joseph Wiseman was a very talented character actor who was born in Montreal in 1918. Probably best remembered as Dr. No from the James Bond film of the same name, Wiseman had a very distinguished career on Broadway, and many parts in movies and television shows. He said that he thought the Bond series was going to be another Grade-B Hollywood mystery series along the lines of Charlie Chan and was very surprised at its success. His first part of note was as a treacherous and neurotic criminal in the Broadway play Detective Story, and he repeated that part in the movie version. Along the way he worked with Burt Lancaster in The Unforgiven and with Richard Dreyfuss in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. He also worked in most of the great live television drama series of the 1950s, as well as giving great performances in episodes of the Untouchables and later on in the 1980s show Crime Story. In the last years of his life he gave dramatic readings of the works of Yiddish writers. One moment that sticks with me is his reading of a line from the rather mediocre movie The Valachi Papers in which he plays the part of real life mafia chieftain Salvatore Maranzano. In the movie he takes a poorly written line with unintentional humor in it and makes it also chilling. In the scene a woman whose spouse has been murdered asks the mobster, of seemingly unlimited power, for his assistance. The woman beseeches him, "Oh Don Salvatore please restore my husband to life." To this he responds, "Madame, I cannot bring-a back the dead. I can only kill-a the living."