The German actor Walter Gotell, who played KGB head General Gogol in a total of six James Bond films, was born in Bonn on 15th March 1924.

Gotell’s family fled Germany under the Nazis and settled in Britain and he started in films during the Second World War playing German heavies. After the war he appeared in classics such as The African Queen (1950) and first appeared in a Bond film as henchman Morzeny in From Russia With Love (1963).

In The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)  he returned to the series, this time playing General Gogol, a character who returned in Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), and The Living Daylights (1987).

Photo: “Walter Gotell as General Gogol” screen capture used under fair use provisions.

Article originally posted on The James Bond Dossier:
Birthday of Walter Gotell (General Gogol) [1924]