25 Mind-Blowing James Bond Facts You Need To Know

Although the Bond franchise is stacked with iconic villains, Auric Goldfinger is one of the most famous baddies. The studio loved Gert Frobe's portrayal of the gold-obsessed mastermind so much that they cast Frobe in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which was also written by Ian Fleming. The producers also strongly considered having Frobe return in Diamonds Are Forever as Goldfinger's twin brother.

However, Frobe was very uncomfortable playing the character because Goldfinger kills his enemies with nerve gas. Since Frobe was German, he was worried that audiences would associate this scene with the gas chambers in the Nazi concentration camps. Frobe wished for this scene to be removed because he didn't want anyone to know the truth: That he himself, was a Nazi.

When this fact became public knowledge, his films were banned in Israel.

But it gets weirder. Frobe did not believe in the values of Hitler, but was forced to join the Nazi regime to avoid being executed.

Although he was ordered to locate Jews, he hid them from Nazis, knowing he would be killed if his actions were discovered.

When a man called Mario Blumenau told Israel’s embassy in Vienna that he and his mother were saved by Frobe when he hid them from the Nazis, the ban on his movies was overturned.