Donald Grant aka Red Grant is a fictional character in the novel and the film. In both, Grant is a henchman for Rosa Klebb. Donald Grant is played by actor Robert Shaw. The very tall, muscular and blond archetype created by Grant would become a clear characteristic of villains in the later Bond films, including Vargas, Hans, Peter Franks, Erich Kriegler, Necros, and Stamper. Grant's signature weapon is a garotte wire concealed in his wristwatch. Red Grant is the device used to show Bond's ability to read people, in the novel Bond is wary of Grant, disguised as Cpt. Nash, as he ties his tie with a Windsor knot, in the film his suspicions arise as the waiter asks Grant if he would like white Chianti with his grilled sole, when Grant replies No...the red kind. , Bond gives a startled look as it is usually customary to eat fish with white wine.NovelIn the novel, Red Grant is SMERSH's Chief Executioner. He was born Donovan Grant in Northern Ireland, to an Irish mother and is the illegitimate son of The Mighty O'Donovan , a German strongman who is involved with an international circus group. Shortly after birth, his mother died and he was consequently raised by his aunt. Red Grant becomes a killer at an early age, his homicidal urges coinciding with the full moon; his SMERSH file categorizes him as a manic-depressive psychopath and an asexual. In the intro of the novel his wristwatch is described to show the phases of the moon. After World War II, he is called up for National Service and is posted to Berlin as a soldier with the British Army of the Rhine. He defects to the Soviets after being disgraced for cheating in a boxing match. Grant enjoys killing people, and the Russians train him to become their Chief Executioner where the Russians call him Krassno Grantitsky code name Granit with some American paperbacks calling him Krassno Granitsky .He poses as an MI6 Agent to lull James Bond into a false sense of security. Bond then trusts him to take watch one night on the Orient Express and gives Grant his gun for protection. Later on in the journey, Grant demonstrates his weapon by shooting it at Bond. He then arrogantly tells bond SMERSH's plans and how the Lektor decoder is booby trapped to kill all Mi6's cypher specialists. Grant then attempts to shoot Bond with the gun hidden in the spine of a copy of War and Peace but Bond has put a cigarette case over his heart. Bond (who is playing dead) then stabs him in the leg and shoots him 5 times with Grant's weapon. Red Grant's father is referenced in Charlie Higson's Young Bond book SilverFin, while Bond is in attendance at a circus.FilmDonald Grant, aka Red Grant, is a British national who works for SPECTRE and is assigned the task of assassinating James Bond to avenge the death of Doctor Julius No from the previous Bond film. The pre-title sequence in From Russia with Love shows Bond and Grant searching for one another. In the end, Grant kills Bond, before a mask is removed from Bond's face to reveal that the whole thing was a training mission for Grant.Somewhat similar to the novel, Grant apparently was born and raised in Ireland. Grant escaped from Dartmoor prison in 1960 (where he was presumably incarcerated for life for a murder conviction) and was recruited by SPECTRE in Tangier two years later, while on the run from the law. He has been intensively trained by the organization and, when not on a mission, he is resident on SPECTRE Island. He is physically formidable, as Rosa Klebb learns when she suddenly punches him in the abdomen with brass knuckles and he barely reacts to the blow.Although it is Grant's mission to kill Bond, the early part of the film shows him shadowing Bond upon his arrival in Istanbul and taking on the role of Bond's protector to ensure Bond delivers (unknowingly) the Lektor encoding device into SPECTRE's hands. Grant uses his role as guardian angel to Bond when he perches himself as a sniper during the Gypsy camp battle sequence to shoot one Bulgar assassin who tries to kill Bond. Later, Grant kills another enemy Bulgar agent at the St. Sophia Mosque in Istanbul who tries to intervene in Bond's rendezvous with Tatiana.Later in the movie, Grant shadows Bond on the Orient Express train and murders Kerim Bey and Soviet security agent Benz to hinder Bond's plans for escape. Later, Grant impersonates a British agent, Captain Nash; whom he had taken out at the train's stop in Zagreb to gain Bond's trust. At dinner on board the train, Grant drugs Soviet cipher clerk Tatiana Romanova by spiking her wine with chloral hydrate.Soon, Grant reveals his true identity, escape route and his plans for SPECTRE to Bond after disarming him. Grant also shows 007 an 8mm film recording of Bond and Romanova making love in his Istanbul hotel, as well as a forged letter that SPECTRE intends for Bond to have on him when he is ultimately found dead by the authorities. This letter would supposedly be from Tatiana, threatening to turn the film over to the news press unless he marries her.Trying to stall for time, Bond asks for one last cigarette, but Grant refuses. Knowing that the assassin has taken his wallet, Bond offers to pay for the cigarette with 50 gold sovereigns hidden in his attach Show less «