Canadian-born stage and screen actor Joseph Wiseman, best known for portraying the villainous title character in the inaugural James Bond film Dr. No, has died at the age of 91.
Wiseman, who had been in declining health, died at his Manhattan home on Monday, according to his daughter, Martha Graham Wiseman.
Born in Montreal in 1918, Wiseman's family moved to the U.S. while he was still a child. He broke into acting with stage roles while still a teen.
Over the years, his credits ranged from Shakespearean and other dramatic roles on Broadway (King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Uncle Vanya) to TV appearances (The Twilight Zone, The Untouchables, Crime Story) to films (Detective Story, The Unforgiven, The Night They Raided Minsky's and The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz).
Among his final roles was a 2001 turn in Broadway's Judgment at Nuremberg.
However, he will forever be associated with the first instalment of the James Bond film franchise, 1962's Dr. No., in which he portrayed the diabolical scientist seeking world domination opposite Sean Connery as Ian Fleming's famed British secret service agent.
"I had no idea it would achieve the success it did," Wiseman told The Los Angeles Times in 1992.
"As far as I was concerned, I thought it might be just another grade-B Charlie Chan mystery."
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