Reportedly this was considered a pilot for a possible James Bond television series, though it's not known if Nelson intended to continue playing the character. He preceded Sean Connery's interpretation of Bond in Dr. Nelson was the first actor (and the first non European before George Lazenby who was the second) to play James Bond on screen, in a 1954 adaptation of Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royaleon the television anthology series Climax!. He began working in Hollywood in 1938 and appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows before he was cast as James Bond. He graduated from the University of California Berkeley in 1941 and, because of his theatrical efforts in school, was almost immediately signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Golden-Mayer Studios. (His year of birth has been subject of some debate, but his 1943 Army enlistment record and his 1993 voter registration records certify 1917 as the correct year of his birth.) He began acting in school at the age of fifteen.

Nelson was born Robert Haakon Nielsen in San Francisco, California, of Norwegian ancestry, the son of Betsy (nee Christophsen) and Trygve Nielsen.

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