DE WOLFF, FRANCIS

Contributed by: The James Bond Movie Encyclopedia by Steven Jay Rubin

(January 7, 1913–April 18, 1984): British character actor who portrayed Vavra the fiery gypsy leader in From Russia with Love.

A native of Essex, England, De Wolff made his credited motion picture debut in director Bernard Vorhaus’s crime drama Ten Minute Alibi (1935). A versatile character actor for decades, De Wolff played swarthy Norman knight Front De Boeuf in Ivanhoe (1952), with future Bond stuntmen Bob Simmons and George Leech doing his stunt riding during the jousting matches. He reprised the role of Front De Boeuf in a BBC television miniseries in 1970. De Wolff also played Albert Hardcastle, the corrupt theater owner opposite Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna, Peter Sellers, and Margaret Rutherford in the delightful British comedy The Smallest Show on Earth (1957), a.k.a. Big Time Operators.

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