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Originally Posted by Thomasbombadil
Casino Royale may well have been Fleming's first Bond novel, but the movie came out in 1967, and David Niven played Bond, not Barry Nelson. I cannot find any reference to a movie or TV show by that title released in the 50's. Is there any more information available?
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Yes. "Casino Royale" starring Barry Nelson as James Bond and Peter Lorre as the villain Le Chiffre aired as an episode of the CBS anthology series "Climax Mystery Theater" in 1955, which was a weekly series of live dramas. Nelson played Bond as an American agent while the Felix Leiter character became a British operative "Clarenece Leiter."
This live broadcast was believed lost until a kinescope film was found in the early 1980s, and today you can see the entire program as a supplement on the current DVD release of the movie "Casino Royale" which is another thing entirely. At the same time Fleming sold "Casino Royale" to American television for the "Climax" broadcast he also sold the film rights to producer Gregory Ratoff. Ratoff was unable to get a film mounted and after his death the rights were sold to producer Charles Feldman. Thus, when Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman bought the rights to the rest of Fleming's novels in the early 1960s, "Casino Royale" was already out of their hands. Feldman eventually tried to cash in on Bond-mania by making "Casino Royale" as a wild spoof movie in 1967 with David Niven as the "real" Bond but with other comedians like Peter Sellers and Woody Allen in the cast too. This silly psychedelic mod comedy is basically the real inspiration for the Austin Powers movies.
Hope that clears everything up! Bottom line though, is that Barry Nelson was indeed the first actor to play James Bond in any kind of dramatization.
While we're at it, let's mention the other BG guest stars with connections to the 007 movies.
Jane Seymour (Live And Let Die)
Britt Ekland (Man With The Golden Gun)
Bruce Glover (Diamonds Are Forever)
Patrick Macnee (A View To A Kill)
