Al HedisonDavid Hedison, a native of Providence, Rhode Island (born May 20), began his acting career with the Sock & Buskin Players at Brown University before moving to New York to study with Sanford Meisner and Martha Graham at the Neighborhood Playhouse, and with Lee Strasberg at the Actors Studio. From there, he moved to off Broadway productions and a film contract with 20th Century-Fox.
 

His work on the New York Stage includes Turgenev's A Month in the Country, directed by Sir Michael Redgrave and starring Uta Hagen, for which he won a Theater World Award, Christopher Fry's A Phoenix Too Frequent and Clifford Odets' Clash by Night. He toured with Anita Gillette in the National Company of Neil Simon's Chapter Two and appeared in Los Angeles in the West Coast premiere of Alan Bowen's Forty Deuce, and in the Allan Miller production of Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? in the role of Larry Parks. HeThe Colbys also toured with Chapter 2Elizabeth Ashley in the Joseph Hayes' new play, Come into My Parlour, and was in the world premiere run of Bernard Slade's Return Engagements. In addition to appearing in A. R. Gurney's Love Letters with Anita Gillette in 1998, David has also appeared in Alone Together, First Love and most recently (2002) as the long-suffering husband in The Tale of the Allergist's Wife at the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, MA.
 

Voyage to the Bottom of the SeaFive FingersWhile at Fox, Hedison made two television series: Five Fingers and the long-running Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea as Captain Crane. He has also appeared in a great variety of roles, from the PBS Television Theatre's production of Oliver Hailey's For the Use of the Hall, directed by Lee Grant, and the NBC mini-series A.D., directed by Stuart Cooper, to ABC's Dynasty II: The Colbys. For five years, he played Spencer Harrison in the NBC daytime series Another World. He has worked extensively on British television, including the BBC presentation of Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke in the role of John Buchanan opposite Lee Remick and performed in a West End production of James Leo Herlihy's Bad Bad Jo Jo.


Live and Let DieJames BondBetween the stage and television work, he has maintained a steady career in feature films, from his first film under contract to Fox, The Enemy Below (1957), with Robert Mitchum, to the popular Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 (2002) with Michael York and Michael Biehn. He played Felix Leiter in two James Bond films, Live and Let Die and Licence to Kill. Film buffs will also remember him in the title role in the original version of The Fly. The film was selected as one of the "Sci-Fi 100" in Entertainment Weekly as being one of the all-time greatest works of science fiction.
 

Another WorldIn recent years, David has also starred in Fugitive Mind (1999) with Michael Dudikoff and Gil Gerard, and Mach 2 (2000) with Brian Bosworth and Michael Dorn. David's two recent films, Spectres and Death by Committee were  released in 2005. 

In January of 2004, David debuted on the CBS Daytime drama The Young and the Restless as Judge Arthur Hendricks, an old flame of Katherine Chancellor.  Soon after his arrival in Genoa City, Arthur was revealed to be the biological father of Katherine's new found daughter, Jill Foster Abbott.  Jill was given away at birth and adopted and was only now beginning to know her birth parents.  Arthur saw Kay through her relapse into alcoholism, helped stage the intervention that sent her to rehab, and when Kay was sober, they became engaged to be married.

When Arthur's bitter stepson, Harrison, learned of the marriage, he came to Genoa City, told Katherine he believed Arthur was responsible for the death of his mother and planted fake insurance papers that Jill found.  She confronted Arthur and demanded to know the truth. Heartbroken his new found family would believe a stranger over him, Arthur broke the engagement and left town. David's last airdate on Y & R was November 29, 2004.

In 2005, David attended two conventions in the US: FX in Orlando, FL in January and Wonderfest in Louisville, KY, Memorial Day weekend. He and his wife Bridget went to Europe in early May, with David signing autographs in Swindon and Basildon in the UK, before spending a week in Italy.  His film Spectres was released on DVD in April and had it's cable premiere on the Lifetime Movie Network in June.  His other unreleased film, Death By Committee was re-titled Reality Trap and was shown at the Avignon Film Festival in Avignon, France in June.  David was interviewed by the MI6 Bond page and was a guest interview on Roger Moore's official site in the fall.

In the early part of 2006, David appeared at  the Hollywood Collectors Show in Burbank, CA and was in demand for interviews prior to the release of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea on DVD, February 21, 2006.  The 2nd Voyage DVD was released on July 11, 2006, with David's DVD interview and the Blooper reel. David did another round of interviews for that.  The third Voyage set was released on October 24 (Season 2 vol. 1) and David was interviewed again.  The fourth Voyage DVD release was released February 20, 2007. 

The first third season release of Voyage on DVD was on June 19, 2007. The remainder of the season 3 episodes will release on October 23. All three releases included clips from David's interview for The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen in 1995.

In the summer and fall of 2006 and into 2007, David worked on four audio books. The first
McKnight's Memory, is due out in  October of 2007. The second, The King, McQueen and the Love Machine does not yet have a release date. The third project was an 12 minute introduction to the reissue of the James Bond Lifestyle that came out June 7, 2007. His fourth audio book project The Casino Caper was released in August of  2007.

David attended the Megacon convention February 18-20, 2007 and performed
Uncle Vanya at the Actor's Studio West. He spent time in South Africa, England and Italy in the early Spring. He recorded an interview for the Sept 11 DVD re-release of The Fly in London in May and an audio commentary track in LA as part of the bonus features on The Fly Collection, which includes all three of the early films. He performed Love Letters with Nancy Dussault at Monmouth University on August 3, 4 and 5.

David plans three personal appearances: the first at the Hollywood Collectors show, October 6-7; and then back to back appearances in Denver at MileHiCon 39 on October 27 and the Collectors Supershow in Northglenn on October 28.

David is already making plans for 2008, the 50th anniversary of his classic film, The Fly.

 

Link: Internet Movie Database: David Hedison

 

 

Last Update 09/08/2007