Nelson was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Norwegian immigrants, Betsy (née Christophersen) and Trygve Nielsen His year of birth has been subject to some debate, but his 1943 Army enlistment record and his 1993 voter registration records list 1917 as the year of his birth. He began acting in school at the age of 15. 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-Goldwyn-Mayer.\n', '

With MGM, Nelson made his screen debut in the role as Paul Clark in Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, with Donna Reed. He followed that with his role as Lew Rankin in the film noir Johnny Eager (1942) starring Robert Taylor and Lana Turner. He played the lead in A Yank on the Burma Road (1942).\n', '

During his service in the United States Army in World War II, Nelson debuted on the Broadway stage in Moss Hart\'s play Winged Victory (1943) in the role of Bobby Grills. His next Broadway appearance was as Peter Sloan in Hart\'s Light Up the Sky (1948). He appeared on Broadway with Barbara Bel Geddes in the original Broadway production of The Moon Is Blue. During the play\'s run, he also starred in a CBS half-hour drama called The Hunter, premiering in July 1952. He played Bart Adams, a wealthy young American whose business activities involved him in a series of adventures. He also appeared with Lauren Bacall in the Abe Burrows comedy Cactus Flower in 1965 and with Dorothy Loudon in The Fig Leaves Are Falling in 1969. Another Broadway role, that of Gus Hammer in The Rat Race (1949), kept Nelson away from the movies again, but after it closed, he starred in the dual roles as Chick Graham and Bert Rand in The Man with My Face (1951).\n', '

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