He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, to Albert David Hedison (Heditsian) Sr. and Rose Boghosian, both of whom were Armenian.[2] Hedison decided he wanted to be an actor after he saw Tyrone Power in the film Blood and Sand.[3] Hedison enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1945 during World War II, but the war ended before he completed basic training. He served 18 months before his discharge.[4]
He was billed as Al Hedison in his early film work until 1959 when he was cast in the role of Victor Sebastian in the short-lived espionage television series Five Fingers.NBC insisted that he change his name,[why?] so he proposed his middle name, which was accepted; he was billed as David Hedison from then on.
Theatre
He acted at Newport Casino Theatre. In 1951, he won a Barter Theatre Award for most promising young actor, entitling him to work at a theatre in Virginia.[7] He did radio in North Carolina and worked on stage in Pittsburgh.[6]
His work on the New York stage included an appearance in Much Ado About Nothing (1952).[8] He was studying with Uta Hagen who recommended him for a role in the Broadway production of A Month in the Country (1956), directed by Michael Redgrave.[9] It ran for 48 performances on Broadway. The Theatre World declared Hedison as one of the most promising theatre personalities of the 1955–56 season.[10]
20th Century Fox
After his role in A Month in the Country, Hedison signed a film contract with 20th Century Fox in May 1957.[11] His first movie with them was the classic war film The Enemy Below (1957), which also starred Robert Mitchum.[12][13]
He followed that up with the lead role in the horror film The Fly (1958) with Vincent Price as his brother.[8] Hedison got the role after Rick Jason turned it down. The film was very successful at the box office.[14]
Hedison was cast in the lead of a TV series made by Fox for NBC, Five Fingers (1959).[11] He was reluctant to make it, especially when NBC insisted he change his first name (Al) to David (which was his middle name). The series lasted only one season.[16][6]
Hedison worked regularly on television, guest starring in Perry Mason, Wonder Woman and The Farmer's Daughter. He co-starred in an episode of The Saint, starring Roger Moore who became a great friend. The episode's plot prophetically involves Moore's Saint mistaken for 007 and Hedison as an FBI agent — roles they would play seven years later as 007 and Felix Leiter in Live and Let Die.[14] He was one of many stars in the film The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).[11]
After Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea concluded, Hedison was offered the role of Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch, but turned it down, stating, "after four years of subs and monsters, who needs kids and dogs?" The role eventually went to Robert Reed.[17]
Hedison moved to London. "I liked London very much," he later said. "I just wanted to go and spend a couple years there ... It's two years I'm not sorry for. The problem was, when I came back to the US, it was more difficult getting work then."[20]
Hedison played Felix Leiter in Live and Let Die (1973), with his friend Roger Moore starring as the new James Bond.[21] Bond scholars Pfeiffer and Worrall praised the friendship between Leiter and Bond for being depicted with "genuine chemistry" between the two.[22]
Sixteen years later, Hedison returned to play Leiter in Licence to Kill (1989), with Bond now being portrayed by Timothy Dalton.[20] Hedison became the first actor to reprise the role of Felix Leiter and is the only actor to play Leiter with two different James Bonds.[20][23]
Hedison thought he was asked back because "there was much more to do in the film than in the past, and they were afraid of using an unknown or someone they were not quite sure of."[20] "I think in this kind of film, it won't lead to other work unless you do something stand-out with a really wonderfully written scene," added Hedison. "Otherwise you're just doing a job, part of the ensemble. And in this case, I have lots of action scenes, but no one scene that is memorable ... Felix is a fairly one-dimensional character, you never get into any depth. You do what you can. There's not much to play. All you can do is perform it with a simple reality ... It was running around, bang bang, getting wet, screaming and yelling, and all kinds of fun, but not serious acting."[20]
Hedison appeared in the West Coast premiere of Forty Deuce in 1985.[26]
Later career
From 1991 to 1996, Hedison was a regular on the long-running soap opera Another World.[13]
He also starred in the New York City premiere of First Love with Lois Nettleton in 1999. He returned to the Cape Playhouse to appear in Tale of the Allergist's Wife (2002), and at Monmouth University's Pollak Theatre, in Love Letters with Nancy Dussault in 2007.[27]
In 2006, he acted in The Scent of Jasmine at the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles on November 13. In 2008, Hedison performed Uncle Vanya at the Actors Studio West. He also participated in performances of The Cherry Orchard and I Never Sang for My Father in Los Angeles in 2009. He later appeared in The Marriage Play by Edward Albee.[14]
He and his wife Bridget were married in London on June 29, 1968. Bridget Hedison died of breast cancer on February 22, 2016.[30] They had two daughters, actor/director/photographer Alexandra Hedison and editor/producer Serena Hedison. Alexandra Hedison has appeared in L.A. Firefighters and The L Word and is married to actress and director Jodie Foster.
Death
He died on July 18, 2019, at his home in Los Angeles.[13][31][32]
