Joseph Wiseman
Canadian actor (1918–2009)
- Born May 15, 1918
- 5 movies
Joseph Wiseman (15 May 1918 to 19 October 2009) was a Montreal-born actor raised in New York who became the first great James Bond villain, playing the title role in Dr. No (1962). He considered himself a man of the theatre first: his Broadway career ran from 1938 to 2001, and the role that won him Dr. No came from repeating his stage performance as an unstable hood in Detective Story on film. He also played Marlon Brando's rival in Viva Zapata! and, later, the crime boss Manny Weisbord on Michael Mann's series Crime Story.
Joseph Wiseman appears in 5 films in The Rerun, from 1951 to 1962. Most of that work is in drama, western and action.
Known for
- Dr. No (1962), Julius No. Played the villain in the first James Bond film.
- Crime Story, Manny Weisbord. Played crime boss Manny Weisbord on the television series.
- Viva Zapata! (1952). Part of the cast of the 1952 film.
- Detective Story (1951). Part of the cast of the 1951 film.
Career
Wiseman began in summer stock as a teenager and made his Broadway debut in Abe Lincoln in Illinois in 1938. Stage highlights included Maxwell Anderson’s Joan of Lorraine and the title role in In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (1968). Hollywood came via Detective Story (1951) and Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata! (1952), and producer Harry Saltzman cast him as Dr. No after seeing the former.
Later films took him back toward his Canadian roots in The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, and into The Night They Raided Minsky’s, Bye Bye Braverman and The Betsy with Laurence Olivier. On television he guested on The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables and Law & Order alongside his regular role on Crime Story. His last Broadway appearance was Judgment at Nuremberg in 2001.
Where to start
- Dr. No (1962): the cool, clinical template for every Bond villain that followed.
- Detective Story (1951): William Wyler’s precinct drama and the performance that got him noticed.
- Viva Zapata! (1952): opposite Brando, in Kazan’s revolutionary biopic.
Movies
Quick answers
- What movies and TV shows has Joseph Wiseman been in?
- Joseph Wiseman appears in Dr. No (1962), The Unforgiven (1960), The Silver Chalice (1954), Viva Zapata! (1952) and Detective Story (1951) on The Remote.
- When was Joseph Wiseman born?
- Joseph Wiseman was born on 15 May 1918.
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