10 James Bond Villains Who Simply Vanished

4. Irma Bunt

Fräulien Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat) is the most notorious Bond villain to simply vanish.

In On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), she supports SPECTRE leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas) in his bid to spread a deadly virus across the globe if he is not granted the title of Count de Bleuchamp and pardoned for his past crimes against humanity.

Bunt is also a cold-blooded killer. Believed to have perished during a car chase against James Bond (George Lazenby) and Teresa “Tracy” Di Vicenzo (Dame Diana Rigg) in Switzerland, Bunt tragically kills Mrs Tracy Bond mere hours after her wedding to James in a ruthless drive-by shooting.

Although George Lazenby resigned whilst making his only Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever was to be its sequel. In its pre-credits sequence, Irma Bunt would have perished either whilst trying to kill Bond with a Land Rover or during a pursuit in the Royal Mail underground railway in The City of London. Bond would have discovered a packet of diamonds on Bunt’s body, setting him on Blofeld's trail once more.

However, German actress, Ilse Steppat died of a heart attack mere days after On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was released. Out of respect, her role was not recast, whilst Diamonds Are Forever largely ignored Lazenby's turn as James Bond.

Nevertheless, Irma Bunt - who pulled the trigger on Tracy Bond - went unpunished.

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