David Hedison obit

The Fly Star David Hedison Dies at 92

He was not on the list.


David Hedison, an actor whose filmography includes Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the James Bond franchise, and the original The Fly, has passed away at the age of 92. According to his daughters Alexandra and Serena, who announced his death (via Deadline), he "passed away peacefully" on Thursday, July 18th in Los Angeles.

Hedison began his career in the theater, in which he operated under his given name of Al Hedison. Hedison quickly made his way to the Off-Broadway realm, where he worked alongside the works of Uta Hagen and Michael Redgrave.


Hedison signed a contract with 20th Century Fox in 1957, and starred alongside Vincent Price in The Fly just a year later. In that film, Hedison played Andre Delambre, a scientist who soon gets his DNA spliced with a fly after a freak accident.

As Hedison's career went on, his filmography included The Son of Robin Hood, The Lost World, and Five Fingers. He then gained a whole new sort of notoriety in 1964, with his role as Captain Lee Crane in the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea TV series. The project ran until 1968.

Hedison went on to play Felix Leiter in two James Bond movies - Live and Let Die and License to Kill. He became the first actor to play the role across more than one film.

In his later years, Hedison's roles included a fifty-episode stint on The Young and the Restless, and voicing Jor El in Superman and the Secret Planet. His final role was as "Interviewee #2" in Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk.


He starred in the spy TV series Five Fingers, and over the next few years had roles in Perry Mason, The Saint and the feature film The Greatest Story Ever Told.

Though many other roles would follow well into the new century, including Dynasty, The Colbys, Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy, Live and Let Die and soaps Another World and The Young and the Restless, it was his performance as the heroic, handsome Capt. Lee B. Crane in producer Irwin Allen’s submarine-set 1964-68 Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea that secured his place in the collective memory of the Baby Boomer generation.

Filmography

Film

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1957      The Enemy Below            Lt. Ware              

1958      The Fly Andre Delambre              

1958      The Son of Robin Hood Jamie    

1958      Rally Round the Flag, Boys!          Narrator               Voice, Uncredited

1960      The Lost World Ed Malone          

1961      Marines, Let's Go             Pfc. Dave Chatfield         

1965      The Greatest Story Ever Told       Philip    

1970      Kemek Nick      

1973      Live and Let Die                Felix Leiter         

1980      North Sea Hijack               Robert King        

1984      The Naked Face                Dr. Peter Hadley              

1986      Smart Alec          Frank Wheeler

1989      Licence to Kill     Felix Leiter         

1990      Undeclared War               US Ambassador                

1999      Fugitive Mind     Senator Davis     Direct-to-video

2001      Mach 2 Stuart Davis       

2001      Megiddo: The Omega Code 2      Daniel Alexander             

2004      Spectres               William                

2005      The Reality Trap                Morgan Jameson             

2013      Superman and the Secret Planet                Jor-El     Direct-to-video

2017      Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk         Interviewee #2 (final film role)