"Choose your next witticism carefully Mr Bond, it may be your last."

Gert Frobe, the rotund German actor, was already in his fifties by the time he appeared as the eponymous villain in the third instalment of the James Bond movie franchise, Goldfinger. His portrayal of the cruel, ruthless Auric Goldfinger was in contrast to the man who played him. Far from the typical English stereotype of a humourless German, he was a light-hearted individual. Indeed, his performances in Monte Carlo or Bust and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang demonstrated his fine comedic capabilities.

His success as one of 007's greatest on-screen adversaries was a double-edged sword, saying: "I played Goldfinger in the James Bond film… some people insist on seeing me as a cold, ruthless villain – a man without laughs." However, the role brought him exposure to a world audience that would never have heard of him, if he had remained in German language films. During the 1950's, Frobe had already worked for Elia Kazan and Orson Welles, but the international exposure he received via Bond, undoubtedly, gave his career a massive boost.

Born a year before the outbreak of the First World War, Frobe had been a talented violinist. He had trained at Dresden's Academy of Fine Arts but became more interested in acting, although his burgeoning career was interrupted by service in the army. As well as an interest in music, he had also been a stage designer, but after Germany's eventual defeat, he concentrated on film work landing the lead role in 1948's Berliner Ballad. His comic talents were put to good use in this tale of an ordinary Joe's survival in post-war Berlin. His ruddy cheeks and gawky appearance are at odds with the later roles he became best known for, as he was yet to put on weight that would lend itself to playing more villainous parts and petty figures of authority.

Before his first film in the English language, he had starred in over a hundred films in his own tongue. His brief appearance as the oafish German soldier in Hollywood's stark depiction of the D-Day landings of 1944, The Longest Day, would lead to him playing Auric Goldfinger. Ironically, the same film would also introduce a larger audience to a tall, athletic, young Scottish actor called Sean Connery.

As Connery would discover, when he accepted the role of the spy licensed to kill by Her Majesty's Government, Frobe's casting as one of Ian Fleming's best baddies had consequences, above and beyond those, of mere typecasting. For as a German, who lived in his native land, under the tyranny of Adolf Hitler and his cronies, there was the dark cloud of suspicion forever hovering over the actor's head.

During an interview with the Paris correspondent of an Israeli newspaper in 1965, Frobe confessed that he had once been a member of the Nazi party. Needless to say, this caused a furore in the Jewish homeland. He admitted that he had simply been a passive member, but the Film Censorship of Israel banned Goldfinger, despite the film having done well at the box-office. The ban was soon overturned, when a Jewish family that Frobe had helped hide from the Nazis came forward to demonstrate that the actor was no fascist. When the film was allowed back in Israeli cinemas, attendance records went through the roof.

It may sound unlikely to those who have watched with horror the documentaries and feature films about the concentration camps, but not everyone who was a member of the Nazi party were all enthusiastic supporters of Hitler and his ilk. And there were members, including Frobe, who did assist Jews in evading capture.

During the war, he served in the Wehrmacht as a corporal. Years later, he would be promoted, but only in the fictional sense, as the bumbling sergeant who witnesses the beginning of D-Day and the invasion of Normandy in 1944. Along with another Bond villain, Curd Jürgens, The Longest Day would introduce him to a global cinema audience, as the Swinging Sixties welcomed its one man Beatles, James Bond.

Although Goldfinger was the third instalment of the 007 franchise, it had all the elements that many would associate with the series thereon. The wit, the weaponry and the women, from its signature tune extolling the movie's chief baddie who has "the Midas touch" to the shocking death of Jill Masterson, as played by Shirley Eaton. And, who could forget a film with a female character that delights in being called Pussy Galore? As Ian Fleming's creation is only as good as 007's adversary, Bond had certainly met his match.

Frobe is coolly magnificent, revelling in the evil nature of his character, a British billionaire whose love of the yellow metal is all consuming. It is Bond's task to thwart Goldfinger's plan to contaminate the gold supply at Fort Knox, forcing up the price, as well as revenge for the death of Eaton's character. As Goldfinger is both highly intelligent, ruthless and supremely immoral, Bond has his work cut out, especially when he finds himself confronted by a laser that is about to do serious damage to his nether regions!

With his eyes keenly watching the progress of the laser, Bond asks Goldfinger that he believes he will talk, only to be rebuffed with one of the greatest lines of any Bond villain: "No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!" How odd that this most famous of quotes was voiced not by Frobe, but dubbed by the English actor Michael Collins. Far from unusual, however, as Ursula Andress also had to be dubbed for her role in, first in the series, Dr No by a British actress, Diana Coupland.

As for many actors who appeared in the series, Bond could be a millstone, including dozens of Bond girls, as well as the man who played Q, Desmond Llewelyn, but Frobe's career blossomed. Despite the dangers of being typecast, as the foreign heavy, he continued to find roles that stretched him as an actor, especially in the realm of comedy. Nor did his connection to the work of Ian Fleming end with Auric Goldfinger.

Many assume that the classic children's film, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang must be a Disney production. Not only does it have Dick Van Dyke as its star, having proved such a hit with Mary Poppins, but also the Sherman brothers wrote the songs and it was shot in England. After the Second World War, Disney had started shooting some of its productions in the United Kingdom, using British actors and technicians, several with Ken Annakin, the Yorkshire-born, of Ukrainian descent, film director.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was first written as a children's story by Ian Fleming, to amuse his young son, and the same company that produced the Bond features were behind the making of the film version. In essence, this is a Bond movie for kids, with even children's author Roald Dahl adapting the book for the big screen. Such is the film's cult status that it has led to it also becoming a hit musical in the West End and Broadway.

The only actor to appear in a regular Bond movie and its more juvenile offspring was Gert Frobe. Despite playing numerous heavies, he was able to demonstrate his comedic, and musical, abilities as the ruler of Vulgaria. The child hating, toy-obsessed Baron Bomburst covets the car created by the mild-mannered inventor Caractacus Potts. With his equally obnoxious wife, played by the equally oily Anna Quayle, Frobe captures the children of the widower Potts, enabling the population to lead a revolution and unseat the royal family, leading to the obligatory happy ending.

After the success of Goldfinger, Frobe had expressed the fear that he would typecast as an archetypal villain – "a man without laughs" but confided that although he was "a big man… I have a laugh to match my size."

Even before Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, he had already made a successful foray into comedy with Ken Annakin's madcap adventure Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours and 11 minutes. He took further comedy roles in the less successful sequel, Monte Carlo or Bust, and Rocket to the Moon, as Professor Von Bulow, whose experiments constantly end in failure, despite his best intentions.

His profile never regained the giddy heights that he enjoyed with Goldfinger, but he continued to work on into his seventies. He worked with several name directors, including Claude Chabrol, Alexander MacKendrick and Luchino Visconti, although in his last years, most of his acting jobs centred on projects based in Europe. He died in Munich in 1988, he was seventy-five. He left a wife, two sons and a daughter.

Although he worked with some of the greatest directors of the twentieth century – he appeared in Fritz Lang's last film - Frobe will always be best remembered for being the man who was Auric Goldfinger. Whose chilling performance, as Bond's greatest villain, has often been equalled but never surpassed.

© Howard Watson 2005