Forget Sean Connery, Watch James Bond Make His Real Debut on TV
Conventional wisdom has it that Sean Connery is the first actor to play James Bond onscreen, kicking off a line of succession that leads to current 007, Daniel Craig, whose latest film, Spectre, opens in theaters tonight. Well, in this case, conventional wisdom happens to be off — like, eight years off. Before Connery registered his license to kill in the 1962 hit Dr. No, millions of viewers were introduced to Barry Nelson’s “Bond, Jimmy Bond” in a 1954 episode of the CBS anthology series Climax! The show’s producers secured the rights to adapt Ian Fleming’s just-published debut Bond novel, Casino Royale, during their first season. The square-jawed, California-born Nelson nabbed the role of Her Majesty’s top secret service agent, necessitating a nationality change amongst other judicious edits that writers Charles Bennett and Anthony Ellis made to the text.
Barry Nelson’s Jimmy Bond engages in a baccarat battle with Peter Lorre’s Le Chiffre in 1954′s “Casino Royale”
To be fair, there’s a good reason why Nelson’s Bond isn’t as immediately recognizable as Connery’s or Craig’s: for decades, nobody was able to see his version of the character. Like many dramatic series at the time, Climax! filmed all of its episodes live, which meant that “Casino Royale” played once — and only once — on the evening of Oct. 21, 1954. After that, it vanished off the pop culture radar completely, unavailable for even the most die-hard Bond completest to view. Unavailable, that is, until 1981, when a scratchy black-and-white kinescope recording of the original color telecast surfaced. That’s the version that has since been released on DVD and can be watched above, a fascinating memento of one of our dominant movie franchise’s pre-history.
Daniel Craig’s James Bond makes his move in the 2006 version of Casino Royale
Since the Climax! version of Casino Royale is only 50 minutes, the plot has obviously been shortened considerably. And yet, if you’ve read the book or, more likely, seen the 2006 movie version that launched Craig’s Bond career, you’ll recognize the basic narrative, even though none of the familiar 007 flourishes are in place. In fact, Nelson doesn’t enjoy “00” status at all — he’s merely identified as a “Combined Intelligence” agent who is tasked with competing head-to-head against the mysterious Le Chiffre (Peter Lorre) in a rousing game of baccarat. There’s also a femme fatale in the mix — Valerie Mathis (Linda Christian) rather than Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) — and a scene where Le Chiffre tortures Bond to extract information. Of course, because this episode aired on network television in the ‘50s, the torture is less extreme than the one Craig later endures at the hands of future Hannibal Lecter Mads Mikklesen.
Nelson’s Bond is further distinguished from his British brethren by the fact that he doesn’t quaff martinis — shaken, not stirred or otherwise — and wears an ordinary suit rather than a snugly-fitting tux. On the other hand, he does have a stern way with the ladies, as demonstrated by his callous response to former flame Valerie’s efforts to get back in his good graces. (Then again, the fact that she’s currently, if reluctantly allied with Le Chiffre probably grates on him.) And what he lacks in English refinement, Nelson makes up for in take-no-guff braggadocio. Compared to James, “Jimmy Bond” may be rough around the edges, but he gets the job done when it counts.
Le Chiffre subjects Bond to some bathtub torture
Despite his claim to Bond fame, Nelson — who began his career as a supporting player within the Hollywood studio system before moving into television, starring in such shows as The Hunter and My Favorite Husband — never played up his historic accomplishment. “I always thought Connery was the ideal Bond. What I did is just a curio,” he reportedly told the New York Daily News in 1995. Nelson passed away in 2007, and today is probably best remembered for playing the owner of the Overlook Hotel who hires Jack Nicholson on as a caretaker in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining.
Funnily enough, Jimmy Bond returned one more time in the 1967 version of Casino Royale, which transformed Fleming’s book into an elaborate spoof of spy movies… including the Bond franchise. (Needless to say, that comedy isn’t part of the official 007 canon; Fleming initially sold the novel to a different set of producers, and the film rights weren’t recovered by the team behind the long-running film franchise until 1999.) In that film, the role was played by none other than Woody Allen, and he became 007’s bumbling nephew and wanna-be bad guy. So sure, Barry Nelson may not be the definitive James Bond. But there’s no question that he’s the very best Jimmy Bond.
