Joseph Wiseman Biography

Intense, incisive Canadian-born actor Joseph Wiseman first set foot on stage with a Manhattan-based Italian acting troupe. One of his earliest Broadway appearances was as a townsman in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1939). He went on to share the spotlight with such notables as Helen Hayes, Katherine Cornell, Tallulah Bankhead, and Julie Harris. Wiseman's first important film role was the whining, psychopathic burglar in Detective Story (1951), a part he'd previously played on Broadway. One of his most colorful roles (though hardly his personal favorite) was the Fu Manchu-like title character in Dr. No (1962). A busy film and TV actor into the 1980s, Joseph Wiseman was also active with the Lincoln Repertory Theater in New York. Wiseman died in the fall of 2009 at age 91, following a period of declining health. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi