David Hedison — A Brief “Voyage” Into His “Fly” Life and Career

A Retrospective of the “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” Actor

In your career, you must be so careful; otherwise, you get caught in a particular image, and it’s hard to break.

— David Hedison

David Hedison, who passed away in 2018, was best known on the big-screen for classic films such as The Fly (1958) and Live and Let Die (1973, in which he played CIA pal Felix Leiter to Roger Moore’s James Bond), and on the small-screen for producer/director Irwin Allen’s TV edition of his 1961 feature Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.

Hedison also was known on television for his appearances on daytime serials like Another World,. According to entertainment historian and author Professor Jeff Thompson, Hedison’s espionage TV series Five Fingers (NBC, 1959–1960, costarring Luciana Paluzzi) should have made the actor a prominent TV lead. But, as Thompson observed, that show “came and went [just prior to The Avengers/Man from U.N.C.L.E.] spy wave that would have made it a success.”

An In-Depth “Voyage”

David Hedison found more solidified TV fame for four years with Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and, as Thompson decided, “stood out among the guest stars, gadgetry, and gimmicks” that defined that series…