Joseph Wiseman, Aka 'Dr. No', is No More

Joseph Wiseman, who played Dr. No in the movie by the same name that starred Sean Connery as the iconic British super spy, James Bond, has died at the age of 91. Joseph Wiseman was, therefore, the very first Bond villain.

Joseph Wiseman's film career spanned over forty years, starting with a film role in 1950 in With These Hands and ending with a guest shot on Law and Order in 1996. Joseph Wiseman appeared in such films as The Night They Raided Minsky's, The Valachi Papers, and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. Joseph Wiseman appeared in numerous TV shows, including The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, The Streets of San Francisco, Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century, Magnum PI, The A Team, The Equalizer, LA Law, and Law and Order.

But Joseph Wiseman's role as Dr. No was his most iconic. Dr. No was the first Bond villain to appear in film in the movie by the same name in 1962. As with the Bond villains to come, Dr. No was a maniacal super genius out for world domination, operating on a secret island base in the Caribbean. Dr. No was deformed, having to wear a metal prostheses in the place of a hand that had been loss due to a nuclear accident.

Joseph Wiseman's part Chinese Dr. No was insane, no question, and no shy of committing any sort of crime, including murder. But Dr. No was also elegant, cool, and well mannered. But that was all a façade concealing a boiling mass of resentment and megalomania that made him the perfect opponent for Sean Connery's equally elegant, equally cool, and equally well mannered James Bond. Dr. No, though he was an iconic character in the era of the Cold War, worked for neither side in that long, twilight struggle. "East, West, just points of the compass, each as stupid as the other."

Oddly enough, Joseph Wiseman thought that the role was just another B Movie villain part that would soon be forgotten. On the contrary, Dr. No launched Joseph Wiseman on a successful acting career in film, television, and occasionally on stage,

Joseph Wiseman was born in Montreal, Canada in 1918 and came to Broadway during the 1930s, playing in productions of King Lear, Golden Boy, and Uncle Vanya. Though he wanted to be known for his legitimate theatre work, Joseph Wiseman will always be known as the quaint little gentleman in the Nehru jacket and the metal hand who wanted to rule the world for his employer, SPECTRE.

Source: Joseph Wiseman, IMDB