Original 007 dies...RIP Barry Nelson

[MacNimon]

I see Barry Nelson, the original actor to play James Bond in the 1950s tv version of Casino Royale, died this week, aged 89.

Barry Nelson

[Carol Baynes]

Respect due Barry. RIP.

[Jeff]

Wow, how about that. I just watched that for the second time a few weeks ago when I watched the 67' version (Nelson's tv version is an extra feature on the R1 DVD).

[MacNimon]

Wow, how about that. I just watched that for the second time a few weeks ago when I watched the 67' version (Nelson's tv version is an extra feature on the R1 DVD).

You mean that it still exists?! I just assumed that it had been wiped, years ago!

[Jeff]

You mean that it still exists?! I just assumed that it had been wiped, years ago!

Apparently it was lost for many years but was found in the early 1980's...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_%281954%29

Wiki says the feature I have is slightly truncated, but I am not so sure. What it desribes as the complete ending seems to me to be what I watched on the DVD, but my mind may be playing tricks on me. I may have to check it out to be sure...

An Amazon link to the R1 DVD is below...

http://www.amazon.com/Casino-Royale-...6825165&sr=8-7

[Dave Tudor]

I saw a bit of it a few years back. It's about the most faithful adaptation of any Bond book, isn't it?

Anyway, rest in peace, Barry.

[Jeff]

I saw a bit of it a few years back. It's about the most faithful adaptation of any Bond book, isn't it?

Anyway, rest in peace, Barry.

What? With an American CIA agent "Jimmy" Bond, a European Clarence Leiter, and Vesper Lynd renamed to something else?

Of course, I've never read that one, so maybe so, but I would have thought one of the early Connery films would have been the most faithful.. From Russia maybe?

[Dave Tudor]

What? With an American CIA agent "Jimmy" Bond, a European Clarence Leiter, and Vesper Lynd renamed to something else?

Well, apart from that...

It's one of the few I've read, and if I remember correctly (it was quite a while ago that I read the book, and even longer since I saw the play), a good deal of the book is taken up with the card game, which I believe the television version did too. I think what I meant was that the play is closer to the slower, possibly more cerebral style of the books, as opposed to the movies, which, of course, have their own identity.

I have a mate who is a BIG Bond fan, and I think he said that 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' is the movie which is most faithful to the book - though I may be wrong.

[Ralph]

When I first saw this thread it showed on the main page "original 007 dies..." so I was thinking Sean was no more - no disrespect to Barry Nelson with whom I'm not familiar but I was relieved!