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Walter Gotell

Walter Gotell

Birthday: 1924-03-15 | Place of Birth: Bonn, Germany

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Walter Gotell (15 March 1926 – 5 May 1997) was a German actor, known for his role as General Gogol, head of the KGB, in the James Bond film series. Gotell was born in Bonn, Germany; his family emigrated to the United Kingdom after the Nazis came to power. A fluent English speaker, he started in films as early as 1943, usually playing German henchmen, such as in We Dive at Dawn (1943). He began to have more established roles by the early fifties, starring in The African Queen (1951), Ice-Cold in Alex (1958), The Guns of Navarone (1961), 55 Days At Peking (1963), Lancelot and Guinevere (1963), The Spy Who Came In From The Cold (1965), Lord Jim (1965), Black Sunday (1977), The Boys From Brazil (1978), and Cuba (1979). Gotell won the role of KGB General Anatol Gogol in The Spy Who Loved Me for being a look-alike of the former head of Soviet secret police Lavrentiy Pavlovitch Beria. His first role in the James Bond films came in 1963, when he played the henchman Morzeny in From Russia with Love. Starting in the late 1970s, he played the recurring role of General Gogol in the James Bond series, beginning with The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977. The character returned in Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985) and The Living Daylights (1987). As the Cold War developed, the role of leader of the KGB was seen to change attitudes to the West - from direct competitor to collaborator. His final appearance, as the Cold War began to become less imminent, sees him transferred to a different, more diplomatic role. Gotell is one of a few actors to have played a villain and a Bond ally in the film series (others being Joe Don Baker, Charles Gray and Richard Kiel). Throughout his career, Gotell also made numerous guest appearances in a wide array of television series. He played Chief Constable Cullen in Softly, Softly: Taskforce between 1969 and 1975. He guested in many series including Danger Man, Knight Rider, The A-Team, Airwolf, The X-Files, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, MacGyver, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Miami Vice, Cagney and Lacey, The Saint, and many others. Description above from the Wikipedia article Walter Gotell, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

2003
Puppet Master: The Legacy

as    General Mueller (archive footage)

1992
Puppet Master III

as    General Mueller

1988
Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers

as    Uncle John

1985
Lace II

as    General Zedd

1985
Basic Training

as    Nabokov

1983
The Scarlet and the Black

as    Gen. Max Helm

1980
Cry of the Innocent

as    Jack Brewster

1979
The Stud

as    Ben Khaled

1977
Black Sunday

as    Colonel Riat

1977
The Spy Who Loved Me

as    General Anatol Gogol

1969
The File of the Golden Goose

as    George Leeds

1968
Attack on the Iron Coast

as    Van Horst

1965
The Damned

as    Major Holland

1962
The Road to Hong Kong

as    Dr. Zorbb

1959
The Treasure of San Teresa

as    Hamburg inspector

1952
The African Queen

as    Second Officer