Yuri Borienko (7 November 1932 – 10 February 1999) was a Russian wrestler and actor, known for his performance as Blofeld's henchman Grunther in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Biography

Borienko travelled to America in 1956, possibly beginning his wrestling career there. He returned to Britain in 1960, where the following year, he began to wrestle for independents and was signed up by Joint Promotions in 1962. His ring name was derived from Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and another wrestler called Stanislaus Borienko. Up until the end of the decade, the wrestler could be seen touring regularly in the rings of Southern England, pitted against other heavyweights, disappearing at times to appear in television and movie productions. (Borienko and fellow wrestler Mike Marino were matched against American heavyweight Luther Lindsay.)^[2]

Working as an actor, Borienko guested in episodes of British TV series including Adam Adamant Lives!, Z-Cars, The Troubleshooters, Department S, The Persuaders!, Jason King, The Protectors, Raffles, The Professionals and Strangers as well as a number of films (see below).

After retiring from acting, Borienko and his family moved to Canada where he died in 1999 from leukaemia.^[3] His children include Jas Kadlubowski, businessman Stefan Kadlubowski (1963–2016) and makeup artist Nina Westbury.

James Bond

During his audition for the role of James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, George Lazenby was required to 'fight' Borienko as part of his screen test. During this, Lazenby punched the wrestler, giving him a broken and bloodied nose. This impressed the director Peter R. Hunt and producer Harry Saltzman, winning Lazenby the role of Bond. Borienko was given the role of Grunther as compensation.

Filmography