Walter Gotell

This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Walter Gotell" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Walter Jack Gotell (bornWalter Jacques Goettel; 15 March 1924 – 5 May 1997) was a German-born British actor. He was well known for his role asGeneral Gogol, head of theKGB, in theRoger Moore era of theJames Bond film series^[2] as well as having played the role of Morzeny, a villain, inFrom Russia With Love. He also appeared as Gogol in the final part ofThe Living Daylights (1987),Timothy Dalton's debut Bond film.

Walter Gotell
Gotell, as General Anatol Gogol inThe Spy Who Loved Me (1977).
Born	Walter Jacques Goettel (1924-03-15)15 March 1924 Bonn,Rhenish Prussia,Germany
Died	5 May 1997(1997-05-05) (aged 73) London, England^[1]
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1942–1997
Spouses	Yvonne Hills (m. 1958; died 1974) Celeste F. Mitchell (m. 1974)
Children	1

Early life

edit

Gotell was bornWalter Jacques Goettel inBonn in 1924,^[3] toJewish parents Margarete Wilhelmine (née Cohn) and Jakob Goettel. He was raised mainly in Berlin. Due to rising antisemitism and the growing influence ofNazism, Gotell and his family immigrated to the United Kingdom in 1938, and he was naturalised as a British citizen in 1948.^[4]

Gotell became interested in acting duringsecondary school, and he began acting inrepertory theatre as a teeanger.

Career

edit

Due to a shortage of young actors duringWorld War II, Gotell began working in films starting in 1942. His bilingualism saw him cast as Nazi German villains and military men, such as inWe Dive at Dawn (1943).^[5]

He began to have more established roles by the early 1950s, appearing inThe African Queen (1951),The Red Beret (1953) forAlbert R. Broccoli,Ice Cold in Alex (1958),The Guns of Navarone (1961),The Road to Hong Kong (1962),Lord Jim (1965),Black Sunday (1977),The Boys from Brazil (1978) andCuba (1979).^[6]

His first role in theJames Bond film series was in 1963, when he played the henchman Morzeny inFrom Russia with Love.^[5] From the late 1970s, he played the recurring role ofKGB GeneralAnatol Gogol in the series, beginning withThe Spy Who Loved Me (1977).^[2] Gotell gained the role of Gogol because of his resemblance to the former head of Soviet secret policeLavrentiy Beria. The character returned inMoonraker (1979),For Your Eyes Only (1981),Octopussy (1983),A View to a Kill (1985), andThe Living Daylights (1987).^[6] As theCold War neared its end, the role of leader of the KGB was seen to change attitudes to the West – from direct competitor to collaborator. Gotell is one of a few actors to have played a villain and a Bond ally in the film series (others beingCharles Gray,Richard Kiel andJoe Don Baker).

Throughout his career, Gotell also made numerous guest appearances in television series includingDanger Man,Knight Rider,The A-Team,Airline,Airwolf,The X-Files,Scarecrow and Mrs. King,MacGyver,Star Trek: The Next Generation,Miami Vice,Cagney & Lacey andThe Saint among others. He played Chief Constable Cullen inSoftly, Softly: Task Force (1969–75).^[7] Other television roles included that of Sam Baker, aKGB agent in the hard-hitting British police dramaThe Professionals (1978) – the episode titled "The Female Factor".

Personal life

edit

Gotell was married to actress Yvonne Hills from 1958, until her death in 1974. They had one daughter, Carol, born in 1960. Gotell remarried, to Celeste F. Mitchell, in 1974.

Gotell was a businessman as well as an actor, and used his acting salaries to fund his business interests.^[2] He managed several engineering firms,^{[citation needed]} and he owned a farm in Ireland.^{[citation needed]}

Death

edit

Gotell died from cancer on 5 May 1997, at the age of 73.^[6]

Filmography

edit

Film

edit

The Day Will Dawn (1942) as German Soldier (uncredited)
The Goose Steps Out (1942) as SS Guard (uncredited)
Secret Mission (1942) as Lieutenant Langfeld (uncredited)
Tomorrow We Live (1943) as Hans
We Dive at Dawn (1943) as Luftwaffe Captain (uncredited)
Schweik's New Adventures (1943) as Captured resistance member
The Night Invader (1943)
Two Thousand Women (1944) as German Soldier (uncredited)
No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948) as Joe – Nightclub Doorman (uncredited)
Cairo Road (1950) as Prison Officer
The Wooden Horse (1950) as The Follower
Lilli Marlene (1950) as Direktor of Propaganda
The Man Who Disappeared (1951) as Luzatto
The African Queen (1951) as the Second Officer of the Königin Luise
Desperate Moment (1953) as Ravitch's Servant-Henchman
The Red Beret (1953) as German sentry
Albert R.N. (1953) as Feldwebel
Stryker of the Yard (1953)
Duel in the Jungle (1954) as Jim
Above Us the Waves (1955) as German Officer on Tirpitz. (uncredited)
Dial 999 (1956) as Policeman (uncredited)
1984 (1956) as Guard (uncredited)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) as Matthews, Scotland Yard Patrol Car (uncredited)
Ice Cold in Alex (1958) as 1st German Officer
The Man Inside (1958) as Profuno
I Was Monty's Double (1958) as German Colonel
The Bandit of Zhobe (1959) as Azhad
No Safety Ahead (1959) (uncredited)
The Treasure of San Teresa (1959) as Hamburg inspector
Sink the Bismarck! (1959) as Signals Officer Miller on the Bismarck (uncredited)
Circus of Horrors (1960) as Baron Von Gruber (uncredited)
The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (1960) as Heverton – Second Gambler (uncredited)
A Circle of Deception (1960) as Phoney Jules Ballard
The Guns of Navarone (1961) as Oberleutnant Muesel
The Devil's Daffodil (1961) as Oberinspektor Whiteside / Supt. Whiteside
Road to Hong Kong (1962) as Dr. Zorbb (3rd Echelon scientist)
The Devil's Agent (1962) as Dr. Ritter
The Longest Day (1962) as German Officer (uncredited)
55 Days at Peking (1963) as Capt. Hoffman
These Are the Damned (1963) as Major Holland
Lancelot and Guinevere (1963) as Cedric
From Russia with Love (1963) as Morzeny
Lord Jim (1965) as Captain of Patna
The Spy Who Came in From The Cold (1965) as Holten (uncredited)
Attack on the Iron Coast (1968) as Van Horst
Cry Wolf (1969)
The File of the Golden Goose (1969) as George Leeds
Our Miss Fred (1972) as Schmidt
Endless Night (1972) as Constantine
Black Sunday (1977) as Colonel Riat
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) as GeneralAnatol Gogol
The Assignment (1977) as Frankenheimer
March or Die (1977) as Col. Lamont
The Stud (1978) as Ben Khaled
The Boys from Brazil (1978) as Mundt
The Word (1978) as Hennig
The London Connection (1979) as Simmons
Moonraker (1979) as General Anatol Gogol
Cuba (1979) as Don Jose Pulido
Flygnivå 450 (1980) as Herbert Anchell
For Your Eyes Only (1981) as General Anatol Gogol
The Scarlet and the Black (1983) as SS-Obergruppenführer Max Helm (Karl Wolff)
Octopussy (1983) as General Anatol Gogol
Kalabaliken i Bender (1983) as Storvesiren
Memed My Hawk (1984) as Sgt. Asim
A View to a Kill (1985) as General Anatol Gogol
KGB: The Secret War (1985) as Nicholai
Basic Training (1985) as Nabokov
The Living Daylights (1987) as General Anatol Gogol
Sleepaway Camp II: Unhappy Campers (1988) as Uncle John
Wings of Fame (1990) as Receptionist
Puppet Master III: Toulon's Revenge (1991) as General Müeller
Prince Valiant (1997) as Erik the Old (final film role)

Television

edit

Sherlock Holmes – episode – "The Man Who Disappeared (pilot)" (1951) as Luzatto
The Saint – episode – "The Hi-jackers" (1964) as Hans Lasser
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color – 3 episodes – (1964 & 1979) as Benton / Simmons
Sherlock Holmes – episode – "Wisteria Lodge" (1968) as Henderson
The Zoo Gang – episode – "Revenge: Post-Dated" (1974) as Boucher
Softly, Softly: Task Force (1969–1975) – 55 episodes – as Chief Constable Arthur Cullen
Hallelujah! as Lt. Colonel Henderson
The Professionals (6 January 1978), Series 1, episode 2 "The Female Factor" – as Baker
Scarecrow and Mrs. King – episode – "Service Above and Beyond" (1983) as Kurt Hollander
Airwolf – episode – "Fight Like a Dove" (1984) as Oberst Helmut Krüger / Hans Daubert
Fantasy Island – episode – "Bojangles and the Dancer/Deuces Are Wild" (1984) as Edward C. Bass / Charles Childress
The A-Team – episode – "Where Is the Monster When You Need Him?" (1985) as Ramon DeJarro
Spenser for Hire – episode – "A Madness Most Discreet" (1986) as Max Claus
Knight Rider – episode – "Knight Sting" (1985) as Simon Carascas
MacGyver – episode – "GX-1" (1987) as Starkoss
Miami Vice – episode – "When Irish Eyes Are Crying" (1986) as Max Klizer
Star Trek: The Next Generation – episode – "Home Soil" (1988) as Kurt Mandl
MacGyver – episode – "Gold Rush" (1989) as General Barenov
The X-Files – episode – "Paper Clip" (1995) as Victor Klemper