Character actor Joseph Wiseman brought to life the first screen villain for British secret agent James Bond when he played Dr. No in the 1962 film of the same name.
Wiseman played the cool and calculating menace in the first of the long-running series of James Bond films, which initially starred Sean Connery as the British secret agent.
Wiseman was born in Montreal, Canada, on May 15, 1918, and moved to the United States with his family as a child. He began his career on stage and made his Broadway debut in the late 1930s.
Wiseman appeared frequently on television throughout his career, with roles in the 1950s anthology series Suspense, Lights Out, Tales of Tomorrow, and Inner Sanctum. He was featured as Death in a 1954 production of Death Takes a Holiday for Kraft Theatre, and was the Sorceror in a 1958 Shirley Temple Storybook adaptation of The Wild Swans. He starred in the 1962 Twilight Zone episode “One More Pallbearer”, and appeared in the near-future thriller They from N.E.T. Playhouse in 1970. He was also seen in episodes of Coronet Blue, Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, The Magician, and The Greatest American Hero.
Wiseman also appeared in the tele-films The Mask of Sheba (1970), Pursuit (1972), and as the leader of The Suicide Club (1973). He starred as the villain Draco in the 1979 film Buck Rogers in the 25th Century which served as the pilot for the subsequent television series starring Gil Gerard. He returned to bedevil Buck as Carl Morphus in the episode entitled “Vegas in Space”.
Wiseman died at his home in Manhattan, New York, on October 19, 2009, at the age of 91.
Written by Harris Lentz III
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