(March 15, 1924–May 5, 1997): German-born character actor, long in Great Britain, who rose in rank throughout the James Bond series. Born in Bonn, Gotell started out as SPECTRE tactical chief Morzeny in From Russia with Love; he was promoted to the role of the KGB’s General Gogol in The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and A View to a Kill; and then Gogol rose to a high-ranking position in the Soviet diplomatic corps in The Living Daylights.

Specializing in playing German soldiers in Britain during World War II, Gotell made his credited debut in At Dawn We Die (1943). Ten years later, he portrayed a German sentry in Paratrooper, directed by future 007 helmer Terence Young and produced by Albert R. Broccoli and his partner at that time, Irving Allen.

Gotell’s additional feature credits include Duel in the Jungle (1954); Ice Cold in Alex (1958); The Bandit of Zhobe (1959), again for Broccoli and Allen; Sink the Bismarck! (1960), for future Bond director Lewis Gilbert; The Guns of Navarone (1961); These Are the Damned (1962); 55 Days at Peking (1963), as sympathetic Captain Hoffman of the German legation; Attack on the Iron Coast (1968); Black Sunday (1977); The Boys from Brazil (1978); Cuba (1979), joining Sean Connery; and Prince Valiant (1997), his final film.