DRACO, MARC-ANGE

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

Head of the notorious Union Corse—one of the biggest crime syndicates in Europe—and the father of Contessa Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), portrayed by actor Gabriele Ferzetti and voiced by David de Keyser in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. One of the most sympathetic Mafia dons ever to grace the screen, Draco runs several legitimate business fronts, including construction, electronics, and agricultural concerns. Bond (George Lazenby) meets Draco at his offices at Draco Construction in Portugal. A native of Corsica, Draco met Tracy’s mother, an English girl, when he was on the run from the authorities. She died when Tracy was twelve.

Draco is determined to help his daughter find the right husband (her first husband killed himself in a Maserati with one of his mistresses), so he likes the fact that Bond is interested in her. He offers 007 a dowry of 1 million pounds sterling. Bond declines the generous offer but does mention an interest in Draco’s intelligence sources, particularly in regard to the whereabouts of mysterious SPECTRE chief Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas). Draco will only admit that some of his men have defected to SPECTRE.

However, when Tracy threatens to run away unless he tells Bond what he needs to know, Draco admits that there may be a lead through a lawyer named Gebrüder Gumbold (James Bree), who has offices in Bern, Switzerland. Later, when Tracy is captured by Blofeld, Draco joins Bond in a full-scale assault on their mutual enemy’s mountain fortress of Piz Gloria. And, true to his promise, he gives Bond a check for 1 million pounds when 007 weds his daughter at the film’s conclusion. Bond, of course, returns the money.

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