Five Fingers (TV series)
Encyclopedia
For other uses see 5 Fingers (disambiguation)
Five Fingers is an NBC
adventure
/drama
series set in Europe
during the Cold War
loosely based on the 1952 film 5 Fingers
, starring James Mason
and Danielle Darrieux
. It ran from October 3, 1959, to January 9, 1960.
David Hedison
starred as 32-year-old Victor Sebastian, an American
counterintelligence officer with the code name "Five Fingers". Luciana Paluzzi
played 22-year-old Simone Genet, Sebastian's secretary and romantic interest. Paul Burke
, the New Orleans
native who later co-starred in the New York City
crime drama Naked City
, played Robertson, Sebastian's contact man.
Five Fingers itself was based on the book Operation Cicero (1950) by L.C. Moyzisch and on the memoirs of Elyesa Bazna
(I Was Cicero, 1962). Bazna was something of an antihero in real life (as was his counterpart, Ulysses Diello, in the Hollywood film); the television series transformed the character from a World War II-era mercenary Albanian into a Cold War era heroic American. Sebastian posed as a Communist to gain information on party activities. His public cover was that of a theatrical booking agent for clubs and cafes throughout Europe.
Two additional episodes, "A Shot in the Dark" (Neile Adams
and Joanna Cook Moore
) and "Counterfeit" (Cesar Romero
), were unaired.
and Herbert Bayard Swope, Jr., son of legendary journalist Herbert Bayard Swope
, were the producer
s of Five Fingers.
Hedison recalls on his website that he was preparing to come to work for the seventeenth episode of the series when he was notified that the program had been cancelled without warning. Five Fingers was particularly popular in Australia
, but was not on the air long enough in the United States to attract a sufficient following to survive even a full season.
Manulis produced Five Fingers in association with 20th Century Fox Television
. He also produced the CBS sitcom, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
(1959–1963) starring Dwayne Hickman
. Five Fingers aired at 9:30 Eastern on Saturdays opposite two half-hour western
series, Richard Boone
's Have Gun - Will Travel and James Arness
's Gunsmoke
on CBS and the second half of ABC's The Lawrence Welk Show
.
Five Fingers is an NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
adventure
Adventure
An adventure is defined as an exciting or unusual experience; it may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome. The term is often used to refer to activities with some potential for physical danger, such as skydiving, mountain climbing and or participating in extreme sports...
/drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
series set in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
loosely based on the 1952 film 5 Fingers
5 Fingers
5 Fingers, known also as Five Fingers, is a 1952 American 20th Century Fox spy film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by Otto Lang. The screenplay by Michael Wilson and Mankiewicz was based on Operation Cicero by L.C...
, starring James Mason
James Mason
James Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
and Danielle Darrieux
Danielle Darrieux
Danielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux is a French actress and singer, who has appeared in more than 110 films since 1931. She is one of France's great movie stars and her eight-decade career is among the longest in film history....
. It ran from October 3, 1959, to January 9, 1960.
David Hedison
David Hedison
Albert David Hedison, Jr. is an Armenian-American film, television, and stage actor. He was billed as Al Hedison in his early film work. In 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...
starred as 32-year-old Victor Sebastian, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
counterintelligence officer with the code name "Five Fingers". Luciana Paluzzi
Luciana Paluzzi
Luciana Paluzzi is an Italian actress. She is best known for playing SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe in the fourth James Bond film, Thunderball.-Career:...
played 22-year-old Simone Genet, Sebastian's secretary and romantic interest. Paul Burke
Paul Burke (actor)
Paul Burke was an American actor best known for his lead roles in two 1960s ABC television series, Naked City and Twelve O'Clock High...
, the New Orleans
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
native who later co-starred in the New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
crime drama Naked City
Naked City (TV series)
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format....
, played Robertson, Sebastian's contact man.
Five Fingers itself was based on the book Operation Cicero (1950) by L.C. Moyzisch and on the memoirs of Elyesa Bazna
Elyesa Bazna
Elyesa Bazna was a famous World War II secret agent. An Albanian from Kosovo who spied for the Germans during the Second World War, and was widely known by his code name Cicero...
(I Was Cicero, 1962). Bazna was something of an antihero in real life (as was his counterpart, Ulysses Diello, in the Hollywood film); the television series transformed the character from a World War II-era mercenary Albanian into a Cold War era heroic American. Sebastian posed as a Communist to gain information on party activities. His public cover was that of a theatrical booking agent for clubs and cafes throughout Europe.
Episodes and guest stars
Episodes and notable guest stars include:- "Station Break" (Eva GaborEva GaborEva Gabor was a Hungarian-born socialite and actress. She was widely known for her role on Green Acres as Lisa Douglas, the wife of Eddie Albert's character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, Duchess in the 1970 Disney film The Aristocats, and Miss Bianca in Disney's The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under...
and Tyler McVeyTyler McVeyTyler McVey was an American character actor.-Early life and career:McVey was born in Bay City on Saginaw Bay in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan. His first screen role, uncredited, came at the age of 39 in 1951, when he portrayed Brady in the The Day the Earth Stood Still...
) - "Dossier" (Edgar BergenEdgar BergenEdgar John Bergen was an American actor and radio performer, best known as a ventriloquist.-Early life:...
) - "The Moment of Truth" (Nehemiah PersoffNehemiah PersoffNehemiah Persoff is an American film and television character actor. He was born in Jerusalem, Palestine Mandate.Born in what is now part of Israel, Persoff emigrated with his family to the United States in 1929...
and Jack WardenJack WardenJack Warden was an American character actor.-Early life:Warden was born John Warden Lebzelter in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Laura M. and John Warden Lebzelter, who was an engineer and technician. He was of Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch ancestry...
) - "The Unknown Town" (Michael J. PollardMichael J. Pollard- Early life :Born Michael John Pollack, Jr. in Passaic, New Jersey, he is the son of Sonia and Michael John Pollack. He attended the Montclair Academy and the Actors Studio.- Career :...
) - "The Man with Triangle Heads"
- "The Assassin" (John McGiverJohn McGiverJohn Irwin McGiver was a character actor who made more than a hundred appearances in television and motion pictures over a two-decade span from 1955 to 1975....
) - "The Man Who Got Away" (Arlene FrancisArlene FrancisArlene Francis was an American actress, radio talk show host, and game show panelist...
) - "The Emerald Curtain"
- "The Temple of the Swinging Doll" (Viveca LindforsViveca LindforsElsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors , better known under her professional name of Viveca Lindfors, was a Swedish stage and film actress.-Life and career:...
, Clu GulagerClu GulagerClu Gulager is an American television and film actor. He is particularly noted for his co-starring role as William H. Bonney in the 1960–62 NBC TV series The Tall Man and for his role in the later NBC series The Virginian...
, and Sterling HollowaySterling HollowaySterling Price Holloway, Jr. was an American character actor who appeared in 150 films and television programs. He was also a voice actor for The Walt Disney Company...
) - "The Final Dream"
- "Thin Ice" (Peter LorrePeter LorrePeter Lorre was an Austrian-American actor frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner.He caused an international sensation in 1931 with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M...
, Brett HalseyBrett HalseyBrett Halsey , is an American film actor, sometimes credited as Montgomery Ford. He is best known as the original John Abbott on the soap opera The Young and the Restless, a role he held from May 1980 to March 1981, before being replaced by Jerry Douglas.-Career:Interested in acting since he was a...
, and Alan YoungAlan YoungAlan Young is an English-Canadian actor and voice actor, best known for his role as Wilbur Post in the television series Mister Ed and as the voice of Scrooge McDuck in Disney films, TV series and video games...
) - "Operation Ramrod" (Ray AnthonyRay AnthonyRay Anthony is an American bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter and actor.- Biography :...
) - "The Judas Goat" (Frank DekovaFrank DekovaFrank Dekova was an Italian-American character actor.-Biography:Dekova was born in New York City and taught at a school in New York before joining a Shakespeare repertory group...
) - "The Search for Edvard Stoyan" (Martin BalsamMartin BalsamMartin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He is known for his Oscar-winning role as "Arnold Burns" in A Thousand Clowns and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.- Early life :...
)
Two additional episodes, "A Shot in the Dark" (Neile Adams
Neile Adams
Ruby Neilam Salvador "Neile" Adams is a Filipino-American actress, singer and dancer who made more than twenty appearances in films and television series between 1952 and 1991....
and Joanna Cook Moore
Joanna Cook Moore
Joanna Moore was an American film and television actress best known for her guest roles on the popular television shows of the 1960s, most notably as Sheriff Andy Taylor's love interest, Peggy "Peg" McMillan in four episodes of The Andy Griffith Show...
) and "Counterfeit" (Cesar Romero
Cesar Romero
Cesar Julio Romero, Jr. was an American film and television actor who was active in film, radio, and television for almost sixty years...
), were unaired.
Production notes
Martin ManulisMartin Manulis
Martin Manulis was an American film, television and theater producer. Manulis was best known for creating the television program, Playhouse 90 on CBS.-Career:...
and Herbert Bayard Swope, Jr., son of legendary journalist Herbert Bayard Swope
Herbert Bayard Swope
Herbert Bayard Swope was a U.S. editor, journalist and intimate of the Algonquin Round Table. Swope spent most of his career at the New York World newspaper. He was the first and three time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting...
, were the producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
s of Five Fingers.
Hedison recalls on his website that he was preparing to come to work for the seventeenth episode of the series when he was notified that the program had been cancelled without warning. Five Fingers was particularly popular in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, but was not on the air long enough in the United States to attract a sufficient following to survive even a full season.
Manulis produced Five Fingers in association with 20th Century Fox Television
20th Century Fox Television
20th Century Fox Television is the television production division of 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, and a production arm of the Fox Broadcasting Company...
. He also produced the CBS sitcom, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from 1959 to 1963. The series and some episode scripts were adapted from a 1951 collection of short stories of the same name, written by Max Shulman, that also inspired the 1953 film The Affairs of Dobie Gillis with Debbie...
(1959–1963) starring Dwayne Hickman
Dwayne Hickman
Dwayne Bernard Hickman is a former American actor and television executive at CBS.He is known primarily for his "teenage" actor roles on television sitcoms. The naturally brown-headed Hickman is best known for playing Chuck MacDonald, Bob Collins's crazy teenaged nephew, on the popular 1950s...
. Five Fingers aired at 9:30 Eastern on Saturdays opposite two half-hour western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
series, Richard Boone
Richard Boone
Richard Allen Boone was an American actor who starred in over 50 films and was notable for his roles in Westerns and for starring in the TV series Have Gun – Will Travel.-Early life:...
's Have Gun - Will Travel and James Arness
James Arness
James King Arness was an American actor, best known for portraying Marshal Matt Dillon in the television series Gunsmoke for 20 years...
's Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....
on CBS and the second half of ABC's The Lawrence Welk Show
The Lawrence Welk Show
The Lawrence Welk Show is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years , then nationally for another 27 years via the ABC network and first-run syndication .In the years since first-run syndication...
.