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Robert Rietti, who dubbed the voice of numerous characters in the James Bond series from Tiger Tanaka to Ernst Stavro Blofeld, has died aged 92.

The Londoner played the voices of John Strangways at the start of the very first Bond film, Dr. No, before giving voice to Emilio Largo (Number 2) in Thunderball, Tiger Tanaka in You Only Live Twice, and Blofeld himself (or at least a character who looked like him – because of the ongoing court case he couldn’t be called that) at the beginning of For Your Eyes Only. He provided many voices for the comedy version of Casino Royale, and was seen on screen in the Thunderball remake, Never Say Never Again – making him and Sean Connery the only actors involved in both versions. “In nearly every Bond picture, there’s been a foreign villain, and in almost every case, they’ve used my voice,” he once said.

Rietti’s work also included dubbing Jack Hawkins’ voice after the actor suffered throat cancer, and providing Robert Shaw’s voice for ADR work after the actor died during the making of his final film, Avalanche Express. Perhaps his most famous job after the Bond films was dubbing Orson Welles for Treasure Island: according to Rietti, not one word of Welles is on the soundtrack.