Barry Nelson

Barry Nelson, born Robert Haakon Nielsen on April 16, 1917, in San Francisco, California, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television across more than four decades. The son of Norwegian immigrants Betsy (née Christophersen) and Trygve Nielsen, he attended high school in Oakland, California, where he took on lead roles in school productions. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1941, having participated in student theatre throughout his time there and supplementing his tuition by acting in radio programs in San Francisco.

Nelson began his screen career under contract with MGM, making his film debut as Paul Clark in Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), alongside William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Donna Reed. He followed that with the role of Lew Rankin in the film noir Johnny Eager (1942), starring Robert Taylor and Lana Turner. His Broadway debut came during his service in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II, when he appeared in Moss Hart's Winged Victory (1943) as Bobby Grills. After the war, he returned to Broadway as Peter Sloan in Hart's Light Up the Sky (1948), then played Gus Hammer in The Rat Race (1949). He subsequently appeared opposite Barbara Bel Geddes in the original Broadway production of The Moon Is Blue, and later appeared in both the stage and screen versions of Mary, Mary. His Broadway credits also include the comedy Wake Up, Darling, Cactus Flower (1965) with Lauren Bacall, and The Fig Leaves Are Falling (1969) with Dorothy Loudon.

In 1954, Nelson became the first actor to portray Ian Fleming's secret agent James Bond on screen, playing the character — reimagined as an American agent informally called "Jimmy" — in a live television adaptation of Casino Royale on the CBS anthology series Climax. The production also featured Peter Lorre as the villain Le Chiffre, and Nelson later acknowledged that the opportunity to work with Lorre was a primary reason he accepted the role. Originally broadcast live, the production was believed lost until a kinescope surfaced in the 1980s; it was subsequently released on home video and is available on DVD as a bonus feature with the 1967 film adaptation of the novel. Nelson preceded Sean Connery's portrayal of Bond in Dr. No by eight years. In 2004, he recalled of the role: "At that time, no one had ever heard of James Bond. I was scratching my head wondering how to play it."

Nelson's television work extended well beyond the Bond appearance. From 1959, he starred in 39 episodes of the series Hudson's Bay as Jonathan Banner. His guest credits included Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone (in the episode "Stopover in a Quiet Town"), Ben Casey, and Dr. Kildare, among others. He was a semi-regular panelist on To Tell the Truth for three years between 1962 and 1965, appeared as both a mystery guest and guest panelist on What's My Line, and served as one of the rotating hosts of the NBC Radio program Monitor during the mid-1960s.

On Broadway, Nelson directed the 1968 production of The Only Game in Town while also starring in it as Joe. In 1978, he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor in a Musical for his role as Dan Connors in The Act (1977), a production that also starred Liza Minnelli. His final Broadway appearance came as Julian Marsh in 42nd Street in 1986, capping a stage career that had begun in 1943. In film, he took on the role of Stuart Ullman, the manager of the Overlook Hotel, in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980).

Nelson was married twice. His first marriage, to actress Teresa Celli, ended in divorce in 1951. He later married Nansilee Hoy, and the two divided their time between homes in New York and France. Nelson died on April 7, 2007, while traveling in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, nine days before his 90th birthday.