20 Things You Didn’t Know About Goldfinger (1964)
7. “The Man With The Midas Touch.”
The filmmakers originally considered innovative actor-director-writer, Orson Welles for the title role of Auric Goldfinger, but considered his fee to be too expensive. They screen tested Austrian-American actor, Theodore Bikel before turning to German thespian, Gert Fröbe based on his performance as a paedophile in It Happened in Broad Daylight (1958).
Fröbe spoke very little English, so Guy Hamilton instructed him to speak his lines very quickly to make it easier to voice dub him in post-production. Nevertheless, his actual thickly-accented voice features in the original trailer for the film when Goldfinger threatens “Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr Bond, it may be your last” and also briefly during Goldfinger's proposal of Operation Grand Slam to his ill-fated business associates.
He was, however, mainly voice dubbed by British actor, Michael Collins in his role as Goldfinger [and in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)], although Fröbe dubbed his own dialogue for the German release of the film.
Nevertheless, he demanded ten per cent of the box office gross for Goldfinger, leading the producers to wonder whether they should have hired Orson Welles after all!