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Walter Gotell
Gotell, as General Anatol Gogol in The 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]
Nationality	German British
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1942–1997
Spouses	Yvonne Hills ​ ​ (m. 1958; died 1974)​ Celeste F. Mitchell ​ (m. 1974)​
Children	1

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

Gotell was born Walter Jacques Goettel in Bonn in 1924,^[3] to Jewish parents Margarete Wilhelmine (née Cohn) and Jakob Goettel. He was raised mainly in Berlin. Due to rising antisemitism and the growing influence of Nazism, 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 during secondary school, and he began acting in repertory theatre as a teeanger.

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

He began to have more established roles by the early 1950s, appearing in The African Queen (1951), The Red Beret (1953) for Albert 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) and Cuba (1979).^[6]

His first role in the James Bond film series was in 1963, when he played the henchman Morzeny in From Russia with Love.^[5] From the late 1970s, he played the recurring role of KGB General Anatol Gogol in the series, beginning with The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).^[2] Gotell gained the role of Gogol because of his resemblance to the former head of Soviet secret police Lavrentiy Beria. The character returned in Moonraker (1979), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Octopussy (1983), A View to a Kill (1985), and The Living Daylights (1987).^[6] As the Cold 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 being Charles Gray, Richard Kiel and Joe Don Baker).

Throughout his career, Gotell also made numerous guest appearances in television series including Danger 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 and The Saint among others. He played Chief Constable Cullen in Softly, Softly: Task Force (1969–75).^[7] Other television roles included that of Sam Baker, a KGB agent in the hard-hitting British police drama The Professionals (1978) – the episode titled "The Female Factor".

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]}. At one time, he owned the southernmost house in Europe^{[citation needed]}.

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

• Inside 'From Russia with Love' – Video documentary short (2000) – Himself / Morzeny

• Walter Gotell at IMDb
• Walter Gotell at Memory Alpha