You’ll find someone who doesn’t find Cillian Murphy’s portrayal of the brilliant but rather tormented physicist genius J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s film outstanding. Of course, this is not so easy when it comes to staging the biopic. A milestone for the actor is winning the Golden Globes on Sunday (January 7th).
However, it is the second time that a talented mime has been praised for portraying this difficult historical figure. In fact, the fearless scientist, who has long been considered the father of the atomic bomb, was already portrayed by Joseph Wiseman in 1969.
For Joseph Wiseman, Bond was just B-stock
The character actor, capable of anything, was known to a worldwide audience as a film villain at the time, having played the famous Bond adversary Dr No in the first film adaptation of Ian Fleming’s 007 series in 1962. For the accomplished theater actor Wiseman, this was more of a curse than a blessing. He once said in an interview that he probably wouldn’t have accepted the role if he had known that the film was nothing more than what he disparagingly described as “a Category B crime thriller.”
Oppenheimer’s portrayal probably required more effort from him, which may also have been due to Gordon Davidson’s gripping production of Heinar Kipphardt’s play “In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer” adapted for Broadway. The drama is about the time when the German-born scientist had to explain to the Atomic Energy Commission’s investigative committee whether he was acting loyally to the United States (which also forms an important part of the Nolan film adaptation). At the time, Wiseman received a Drama Desk Award – New York’s most important theater award – for his acting performance in the play.
Remarkably, this remains one of the few honors bestowed upon the mime, even though he had a long, distinguished career on the New York stage before becoming one of the top character actors in film and television.
In the early 1950s, Wiseman had already attracted attention in the theater and cinema with “Polizeirviervier 21” (Detective Story). He also received a lot of recognition for his portrayal of a revolutionary in the Elia Kazan film “Viva Zapata!”, as a fascinating counterpart to Marlon Brando’s Zapata. Other fascinating roles followed, including in the Sidney Lumet comedy “Bye Bye Braverman”.
Of course, Wiseman, who died on October 19, 2019, is still best known as a Bond villain. He is even featured in numerous lists as one of the darkest evil guys in the history of cinema. But with the role of J. Robert Oppenheimer he slipped into the skin of a person who could cause much more mischief with his invention than the fantasy character of a British author.