Website last updated: 26-4-2024
Home
Book & Film reviews
Competitions
FSWL Merchandise
In Memoriam
Interviews
James Bond 007 articles
James Bond 007 collection
James Bond 007 films
James Bond 007 games
James Bond 007 literature
James Bond 007 news
James Bond 007 products
James Bond 007 shop
James Bond 007 stars
James Bond Fan Clubs
Swedes in the Bond films
Steven Jay Rubin remember Gert Fröbe on his birthday
By: Steven Jay Rubin
Published:
2021-02-25
2021-02-25
Gert Fröbe will forever be identified as the marvelous title character villain in the third James Bond movie, Goldfinger (1964), one of the best written and performed roles ever featured in the 007 series.
Credit must be given to screenwriter Richard Maibaum for giving his villain some of the choicest lines ever.
BOND (as the laser beam heads for his family jewels), “Do you expect me to talk?”
GOLDFINGER: No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die.”
Fröbe had previously been in The Longest Day (1962) as the milk-delivering horseman on Omaha Beach, ironically just down the road from Sean Connery who was playing a soldier wading ashore on Sword Beach. The following year, Fröbe would return to international territory with his performance as the comic flyer in Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965).
There is one more person who needs crediting here – actor Michael Collins who revoiced Gert when the producers felt his German accent was too thick. And since the script introduces Goldfinger as a Brit, it made sense to get Collins, who was spot on (see attached video interview with Collins and sound expert Norman Wanstall).
So let’s hoist a tall one to one of the great Bond characters of all time, and the extraordinary men who played him.
All text. Copyright © 2021 Steven Jay Rubin. All rights reserved.
Tags:
#birthdays
#bond_villains
#goldfinger
#steven_jay_rubin
Tweet
