Wiseman’s ‘Unfinished’ Business: More Than 50 Years in the Theater

Joseph Wiseman is celebrating his 56th year in the theater.

The stage, he says, “retains the same excitement and the same fear” as when he began. “I don’t want to be nervous,” he confesses. “I prefer not to be nervous, but I haven’t quite learned how not to be. I admire those (actors) who can go on with a certain amount of peace of mind.”

The award-winning actor is starring with Hal Linden, Fionnula Flanagan and Christopher Collet in Sybille Pearson’s “Unfinished Stories,” currently in previews and opening Thursday at the Mark Taper Forum.

“It is a remarkable play,” Wiseman says. “I was just up in my dressing room going over scenes and suddenly something (about the play) hit me. I have had the play for about three months and something hit me for the first time.”

Wiseman admits he’s had a very “lucky” career, working opposite such legends as Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, John Garfield and Katharine Cornell and being directed by the likes of Alfred Lunt, Jose Quintero and Harold Clurman. “I have never taken the theater for granted,” he says. “It was one of the greatest learning experiences I ever had.’

The Canadian-born actor came to Hollywood in the early ‘50s where he appeared in numerous films, including “The Detective Story,” “The Unforgiven” and “Viva Zapata.”

“In the ‘50s and ‘60s, I went back and forth (from stage to screen),” he says. “I was younger then and I had lots more hair.”

Wiseman is best remembered as the larger-than-life talon-fingered fiend in 1962’s “Dr. No,” the first James Bond film.

“I had no idea what I was letting myself in for,” Wiseman says, laughing. “I had no idea it would achieve the success it did. I know nothing about mysteries. I don’t take to them. As far as I was concerned, I thought it might be just another Grade-B Charlie Chan mystery.”