List of James Bond henchmen in From Russia with Love

A list of henchmen from the 1963 James BOND film and novel From Russia with Love from the List of James Bond henchmen.

Donald “Red” Grant

Krassno Granitsky aka “Red” Grant is a fictional character in the James Bond novel and film From Russia with Love. In both, Grant is a henchman for the villainess Rosa Klebb. Donald Grant is played by actor Robert Shaw. The very tall, muscular and bleach blond archetype created by Grant would become a clear characteristic of villains in the later Bond films, including Hans, Erich Kriegler, Necros, and Stamper. Grant's signature weapon is a garotte wire concealed in his wristwatch.

Novel

In the novel, From Russia with Love, Red Grant is SMERSH's Chief Executioner. He was born Donovan Grant in Ireland, to an Irish mother and is the illegitimate son of "The Mighty O'Donovan", a German who is involved with an international circus group. Shortly after birth, his mother died and he was consequently raised by his aunt.

Red Grant becomes a killer at an early age, his urges to kill coinciding with the full moon. After World War II, he is called up for National Service and is posted to Berlin as a soldier with the British Army. He defects to the Soviets after being disgraced for cheating in a boxing match. Grant enjoys [...] people, and the Russians train him to become their Chief Executioner. He poses as a MI6 Agent to lull James Bond into a false sense of security. Bond then trusts him to takes watch one night on the Orient Express and inexplicibly gives Grant his gun. Grant attempts to shoot Bond with a gun hidden in the spine of a copy of War and Peace but Bond has put a cigarette case over his heart. Grant is then stabbed by Bond (who was playing dead) in the room and shot with his book gun.

• Red Grant's father is referenced in Charlie Higson's Young Bond book SilverFin, while Bond is in attendance at a circus.

Film

Donald Grant, aka Red Grant, is a British national who works for SPECTRE and is assigned the task of assassinating James Bond to avenge the death of Doctor Julius No from the previous Bond film. The pre-title sequence in From Russia with Love shows Bond and Grant searching for one another. In the end Grant kills Bond, before a mask is removed from "Bond's" face to reveal that the whole thing was a training mission for Grant.

Grant is described as being a homicidal-paranoiac maniac, who escaped from Dartmoor prison in 1960 (where he was presumably incarcerated for life) and was recruited by SPECTRE in Tangier two years later, whilst on the run from the law. He has been intensively trained by the organization and when not on a mission, he is resident on SPECTRE Island (location unknown). His finer education may be limited when later in the film, Bond is surprised that he doesn't know white wine goes with fish.

Although it is Grant's mission to kill Bond, the early part of the film shows Grant taking on the role of Bond's protector to ensure Bond delivers (unknowingly) the Lektor encoding device into SPECTRE's hands. Grant uses his role as "guardian angel" to Bond when he perches himself as a sniper during the Gypsy camp battle sequence to shoot one Bulgar assassin who tries to kill Bond. Later, Grant kills another enemy agent at the St. Sophia Mosque in Istanbul who tries to intervene in Bond's rendezvouz with Tatia.

Later in the movie, Grant shadows Bond on the Orient Express train and murders Kerem Bey and a Russian agent to hinder Bond's plans for escape. Later, Grant impersonates a British agent, named Captain Nash, whom he kills at the train's stop in Zagrab to gain Bond's trust. Grant is killed on the Orient Express after a brutal fight when Bond, with the use of Q-branch's attaché case knife, stabs him in the left arm and strangles Grant with his own garotte.

• Donald 'Red' Grant shares his name (although not his nickname) with a real traitor, Donald Grant, who was a vacuum-cleaner salesman and member of the British Union of Fascists from Easter Ross. At the outbreak of war in 1939 this Donald Grant was in Germany and was employed by the Nazis to broadcast to Scotland as 'Radio Caledonia' with the aim of increasing disaffection.

• Grant doesn't speak in the movie until he meets Bond at a train station, posing as Nash.

Computer Game

In the computer game based on the novel and film, Donald (Red) Grant is the chief enforcer for the [...] organization codenamed OCTOPUS. He has a female assistant named Eva Adara, portrayed by Maria Menounos. Grant does most of OCTOPUS' dirty work, but his primary mission is to acquire the Lektor decoding device and kill Bond. He catches up with Bond on the Orient Express, and survives the confrontation at the train station unbeknownst to Bond. During the final assault on OCTOPUS headquarters, he uses a spider-like machine to attack Bond again, but this time he is killed, where Bond shoots with a Wright Magnum after Grant pulls out a PPK.

Kronsteen

Kronsteen (Кронстейна) is a fictional character from the James Bond novel From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming, and of the film of the same name, released in 1963. He was portrayed in the film by Vladek Sheybal.

In the novel Kronsteen was the head of the planning department for SMERSH. He was a Chess grand master and the champion of Moscow for two years running. During the championship game for his third year Kronsteen was called away by SMERSH to come up with a plan to kill and discredit James Bond. He actually survives in the novel and never encounters James Bond.

In the film, Kronsteen worked for SPECTRE and was tasked with inventing a plan to kill and disgrace James Bond for the "[...]" of Dr. Julius No in the film, Dr. No. Kronsteen is first seen when he is playing chess, he wins shortly after he is given a message under his glass of water. Kronsteen leaves after the match and reports to Rosa Klebb and Ernst Stavro Blofeld. He explains his plan to his superiors. But at the end of the movie, it turns out that Bond survived his plot against him. Kronsteen points to Klebb for the reason of the plot's flaw. Kronsteen seems immune to Blofeld's anger. Klebb tries desperately to defend herself and she gets downtrodden as Blofeld calls in Morzeny. Morzeny puts the poison tip of his boot out, but noticing Kronsteen's immune charm to his anger, Blofeld has Kronsteen killed by Morzeny, sparing Klebb. He is the very first henchmen to be killed by his boss

Krilencu

Krilencu is a fictional character from the James Bond novel From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming, and the the film of the same name, he was portrayed by Fred Haggerty. In both, Krilencu is a Bulgarian killer working for SMERSH to eliminate Western agents in Turkey.

Morzeny

Morzeny is the only henchman mentioned by name who was created for the film; he does not appear in the novel. Morzeny ran Blofeld's training grounds on SPECTRE Island, which is where Klebb first inspected, then recruited Grant. Later in the movie, Blofeld has him kill Kronsteen, which he gladly does using the poison-tipped shoe blade Klebb would later use herself. He and other SPECTRE henchmen then pursue Bond on boats. After a deadly boat chase, Bond blows up some fuel tanks he drops into the water. This causes all of the enemy boats blow up and burn. Viewers witness Morzeny burning and falling into the water.

Morzeny is played by Walter Gotell better known to Bond fans as General Gogol, head of the KGB during the Roger Moore years.