Hans is the personal bodyguard of SPECTRE mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld. He is a tall (6 ft 8 inches), muscular blonde man wearing an all-black outfit who never speaks and appears in the film You Only Live Twice, played by Ronald Rich and credited simply as “Blofeld’s Bodyguard.”

Ronald Rich as Hans in ‘You Only Live Twice’.

Film biography: Hans is introduced in the film in the first scene one sees of Blofeld’s volcano lair. During a meeting between Blofeld and some of SPECTRE’s investors who are paying him to start a war between Russia and the United States of America, Hans is shown feeding Blofeld’s pet piranhas. He is also present during the execution of Helga Brandt by the same piranhas. When James Bond is captured and brought before Blofeld in the control room, Hans moves to stand between his master and 007, effectively blocking Blofeld’s face from the camera’s view of the villain’s face, as per Blofeld’s previous film appearances. However, Blofeld makes Hans step aside, revealing his scarred visage to Bond for the first time.

During the assault on the volcano lair by Tiger Tanaka’s ninja strike force, Blofeld opts to escape with his life, and here Hans shows his loyalty to his employer. Rather than accompany Blofeld, Hans is commanded to remain behind and blow up SPECTRE’s rocket ship after it intercepts an American one in space. Hans dutifully obeys, and ends up getting into an extended fight with Bond in Blofeld’s office when the British agent attempts to get into the control room to blow up the SPECTRE rocket before it captures the American one. The fight ends when Bond throws Hans into the pool with the very same piranhas he had been seen feeding earlier, and the hulking bodyguard is devoured alive as Bond wishes the fish “Bon appetit!”

As played by Ronald Rich, Hans’ appearance as an imposingly tall, tough, steel-eyed blond enforcer recalls Robert Shaw’s characterisation of the menacing and ruthless blond SPECTRE assassin, Red Grant, in From Russia with Love, and later characters Erich Kriegler from For Your Eyes Only, Necros from The Living Daylights, and Stamper from Tomorrow Never Dies.

See also:

• Bond henchmen