Did you know that Sean Connery was not the first man to play James Bond?

Almost anyone who knows James Bond would say that his first film was doctor not. sean Connery may have set the standard for the spy, but he wasn’t actually the first actor to take on the role. Let’s take a look at Bond’s early days on screen.

The origins of an icon

Ian Fleming worked for Britain’s Naval Intelligence Division during World War II. He was instrumental in organizing covert jobs like Operation Mincemeat and Operation Goldeneye. He would later use his experience in the spy game as inspiration for his first novel, Casino Royale.

Casino Royale introduced the world to Bond, M, Q, Le Chiffre and Vesper Lynn. The original print run of nearly 5,000 copies sold out in less than a month. England loved the spy story, and Fleming was soon hard at work on numerous sequels.

It took a little longer for the series to take off in the United States. It was not until 1961 that John F. Kennedy appointed From Russia with love one of his favorite books Did sales really increase in the United States? By this time, Fleming had already written eight novels and a collection of short stories.

screen time

In hindsight, it’s obvious that Bond was destined for the big screen, but it was a while before the character appeared in the movies. However, it was not long before Bond appeared on television. In 1954, just one year after Casino Royale was published, the American anthology series Climax! on CBS beat out EON Productions with the first film adaptation of a James Bond novel.

The episode, “Casino Royale”, saw Barry Nelson play the American spy “Jimmy Bond”. The 50 minute telecast also saw legendary actor Peter Lorre as the villainous Le Chiffre and Linda Christian as Valerie Mathis. The episode came and went with barely a peep, but that doesn’t change the fact that Nelson is technically the first man to play Bond on screen.

American actor Barry Nelson (1917 – 2007), star of the CBS TV sitcom ‘My Favorite Husband,’ August 18, 1953. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Who is Nelson?

Nelson was a respectable actor for decades before he passed away in 2007 at the age of 89. He started out on stage before moving on to television and film. Nelson later recalled what it was like to play the spy: “At that time, nobody had heard of James Bond… I was scratching my head wondering how to play it. He hadn’t read the book or anything like that because he wasn’t very well known.”

Nelson’s portrayal was lost to history until researchers unearthed it in the 1980s. The episode was purchased, along with the 1967 skit. Casino Royale to make way for the Daniel Craig film. Nelson may not have set the standard like Sean Connery did, but he will always come out on top.