David Hedison Net Worth

David Hedison's Quotes

• When I go back to theater I feel good about myself. When I do films or TV, it's to make a little bread to pay my mortgage or whatever and when I've made the money I do theater again. And when I get a part I like, a part I can work on, that satisfies me. I feed good about myself. Most of the time I don't even watch what I do on TV. I go in, get the job done, and just know it's nothing. It's a job. Sometimes, I try something different and I'll watch out of curiosity. Generally, I don't watch too much of what I do. Movies are basically the same, except it's more money spent on sets.
• Of course, there are pictures you never want to see again -- most of the films I've made like The Fly (1958), The Lost World (1960), Marines, Let's Go (1961). There's a whole slew of shit I avoid like the plague and when I know they'll be on TV I have a dinner party and invite my friends over so they can't see them.
• [on why he turned down the lead in The Brady Bunch (1969)] I turned it down because after four years of subs and monsters, who needs kids and dogs?
• In your career, you must be so careful, otherwise you get caught in a particular image and it's hard to break.

Interesting Facts about David Hedison

1. First actor to portray 007's CIA friend Felix Leiter twice: Live and Let Die (1973) and Licence to Kill (1989). Still the only actor ever to play the role in two non consecutive Bond films.
2. Children are: Alexandra Hedison and Serena Rose Hedison. Father-in-law of Jodie Foster.
3. He was the son of Armenian parents, Rose (Boghosian) and Albert David Hedison/Heditisian, from Harpoot (now Elazig). Some publications listed David Hedison's birthname as "Ara Heditsian." His Armenian grandfather, David/Tavit Heditisian, reportedly changed the family name from Heditsian to Hedison because everyone always mispronounced it as Hedison.
4. His name is one of just five celebrity names actually incorporated into The Statler Brothers' top ten song "The Movies". The lyricist needed a word that rhymed with Thomas Edison.
5. He studied drama at HB Studio in Greenwich Village in New York City.
6. Martin Marootian once worked as an apprentice at the costume jewelry factory owned by Hedison's uncle.
7. Along with Jeffrey Wright, he is one of only two actors to play Felix Leiter in more than one "James Bond" film: Live and Let Die (1973) and Licence to Kill (1989). Wright played the role in both Casino Royale (2006) and Quantum of Solace (2008).
8. Not only was he the first actor to portray Felix Leiter twice (as already posted), but he played Felix to two different Bonds (Moore and Dalton) To date he was the only one to do so as the character, pending future Bond films, has not returned since his character was fed to the sharks by the villain in the License to Kill film (originally titled License Revoked).
9. Until his death on July 18th 2019, David Hedison, known for the classic movies The Enemy Below (1957) and The Fly (1958) and the TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964), was the last surviving star of all three of these classics.
10. His ashes were sprinkled into the Pacific Ocean.