Harold Sakata

Japanese-American Harold Sakata achieved his main sporting success in 1948, when he won the silver medal in weightlifting at the Olympic Games.

He immediately took up wrestling and performed in shows for three decades.

Due to his solid size and ability to stand in front of the audience, Sakata has attracted the attention of producers of James Bond films.

He was offered to star in Goldfinger as a minor villain Ojoba.

True, British wrestling actor Milton Reed also claimed this role.

He wanted to play the right to participate in the film in a wrestling match, but the fight did not take place, since Reed had already starred in the previous parts of Bond.

For Sakata, the role of Ojoba was the first in his life, and the writers did not bother him with complex lines.

For the whole picture, the former weightlifter said only four short phrases.

He was primarily required to participate in combat scenes, and sometimes Sakata gave himself too well to his work - once the leading role, Sean Connery, was out of action for several days after his blow.

  • Harold Sakata in the movie Goldfinger

  • © imdb.com

Rafer Johnson

Unlike Sakata, American Rafer Johnson was a real sports star.

In 1956, he became the silver medalist in the Olympic Games in the decathlon, and four years later in Rome he won gold, becoming the standard-bearer of the USA national team.

Johnson's life outside of sports was full of interesting events.

In 1968, he participated in the election campaign of Robert F. Kennedy and disarmed his killer Serhan Serhan immediately after he carried out the attack.

In 1984, Johnson lit the Olympic flame at the Los Angeles Games.

He was also one of the founders of Special Olympics.

Against this background, his participation in "Bondiana" may even seem very modest.

In 1989, Johnson starred in License to Kill, where he played a small role as Drug Enforcement Agent Mullens.

Before that, Johnson also starred in a number of other films, but also only in episodic roles.

  • Rafer Johnson

  • Reuters

Ludwig Lightner

In the 1960s, German Ludwig Lightner was one of the best skiers on the planet.

He performed at three Olympics and never became a medalist.

But at the world championships he managed to win two bronzes, and in 1964, based on the results of the Games in Innsbruck, he was recognized as the best in combination. 

Lightner completed his active performances in 1968 and immediately found himself on the set.

In the next James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", the German athlete became George Lazenby's stunt double in a scene with a ski chase on the mountain slopes.

Bernhard Russi

In the same film, a young alpine skier from Switzerland Bernhard Russi appeared, playing one of the pursuers of James Bond.

For him, the shooting was unsuccessful - on the second day he fell and broke his cervical vertebra along with his hand.

The camera filmed this fall, and it was included in the final version of the picture.

According to the film, the hero of Russi immediately died, being under a snowblower.

A broken arm forced Russi to change his specialty and engage in downhill instead of slalom, which only benefited him.

Already seven months after the injury, he made his debut at the World Cup and immediately won gold at the World Championship.

In 1972, Russi became the Olympic champion in Sapporo and won silver in Innsbruck four years later.

So, shooting in "Bondiana" allowed the little-known Swiss to go down in the history of skiing.

By the way, after finishing his career, Russi became a designer of ski slopes and took part in the creation of Krasnaya Polyana.

  • Bernhard Russi

  • Reuters

  • © Wolfgang Rattay

Robert Zimmermann

In the film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", in addition to the chase on alpine skiing, there was another scene interesting for sports fans.

In it, James Bond and his antagonist Ernst Stavro Blofeld got into a fight while descending a bobsleigh track.

Its creation was not done without the help of a professional bobsledder.

The understudy of Telli Savalas, who played Blofeld, was Swiss overclocking Robert Zimmermann.

As an athlete, he did not achieve serious success in international competitions, but nevertheless he performed at two Olympiads and took 10th and 12th places in them.

Bob Anderson

The sports career of British saber fencer Bob Anderson was not so successful.

He participated in the 1952 Olympics and two world championships, but did not win medals, being content, at best, with a place in the top five.

The most successful swordsman tournament was the 1950 British Empire Games, where Anderson won five awards in all three disciplines (foil, epee, saber).

But in the world of cinema, Anderson earned the fame of the leading director of fencing scenes in Hollywood.

He not only helped shoot fights in the most famous films, but also performed some of the stunts himself, working as a stunt double for leading actors.

Star Wars fans should know that Anderson played the role of Darth Vader in the scenes where he fought with a lightsaber.

For a while, this fact was kept secret, until actor Mark Hamill paid tribute to the former athlete.

Anderson also had a hand in the creation of Bond.

He worked as a stunt double for the fight scenes in the 1967 films From Russia with Love and Casino Royale, and helped with the fencing choreography in Die Another Day on the cusp of his 80th birthday.

Stephen Paul

Briton Stephen Paul was one of the people Anderson worked with on the set of Die Another Day.

He came from a real fencing family - his father, mother, uncle and two cousins ​​took part in the Olympic Games and even won medals.

Paul himself also represented his country three times in these competitions in 1980, 1984 and 1992, but did not rise to the podium.

Subsequently, he tried to prove himself in the film industry.

In Die Another Day, Paul acted as a stunt double for lead actor Pierce Brosnan in the sword duel scene.

But his film career was limited to participation in the creation of this film.