Both Stoney Burke and Dr. No were released in 1962. Stoney Burke made its debut in September on ABC television. Dr. No made its debut in the United Kingdom in October of the same year. Both productions are unmistakably preparations for Jack's later portrayal of Steve McGarrett in Hawaii Five-0.
In Stoney Burke, he portrayed the good guy who played by the rules, no matter what happened in the world around him.
As badly as he wanted to win the golden buckle, denoting him the best saddle bronc rider in the world, he had to do it by his own hard work or not at all. The answer proved to be not at all, for a bronco reared up in the chute, pinning Stoney to the wall and injuring his spine so that he could not participate in the final competition. Nonetheless, in the final episode, Stoney released horses bound for slaughter, lest they be starved before they were put to death. We will never know whether those horses survived in the desert, but at least, Stoney gave them a greater chance than they had in the knacker's corral.
In Dr. No, Jack portrayed an intelligence officer who was more mature than the MI-6 agent who had the lead in both the search for Dr. No (Joseph Weissman) and the movie. Although Dr. No was produced from Ian Fleming's sixth James Bond book, Felix Leiter did not appear in that book. The movie's producers added him for reasons of their own. Those reasons might have included the fact that, although Jamaica is a British territory, the satellites that Dr. No was toppling belonged to the United States. More than a few people have said that Jack gave the best portrayal of CIA Agent Felix Leiter of an of the eight actors who have played the role. He was just too good to play second banana.
Jack and Joseph Wiseman appeared together again in "Counterfeit Killer". And wasn't there a rumour that he played Felix Leitner only once because it as feared he might outplay Sean Connery?
Enjoyed reading this. I got the DVD set of Stoney Burke while I was recovering from COVID in 2020. Not being a big rodeo fan, I expected to watch a few episodes at most. I was hooked from the first episode. There’s a special magic Jack brings to the role, and the show. it certainly deserves a wider audience.