Commandant François Derval was a NATO pilot and brother of Dominique Derval. He appeared in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball and was played by Paul Stassino.
Biography[]
As part of SPECTRE's scheme to hijack a British bomber and its atomic payload, Commandant Derval was seduced by SPECTRE assassin Fiona Volpe. As Derval said he had to leave in order to proceed to the air base, he was met at the door by Angelo Palazzi, causing Derval to react with shock at seeing his exact double. For a long time prior to this moment, Palazzi had undergone plastic surgery, as well as watching surveillance films of Derval to copy his body language and accent perfectly. Palazzi unleashed a deadly nerve gas while Volpe shielded her respiratory system, causing Derval to die almost instantly. His doppelganger then proceeded to pose as Derval on a standard NATO training exercise. While airborne, Palazzi opened a small canister of the same nerve gas he used on Derval, causing the flight crew to be killed. Palazzi then piloted the plane with the two atomic bombs into the hands of Emilio Largo, using an undersea lighted runway SPECTRE made in the Caribbean Sea.
His corpse was discovered later that evening by Bond, after Count Lippe brought it back to Shrublands health farm, disguised as the same bandaged patient whom Palazzi had been posing as. His dog-tags and watch were later recovered from Palazzi's corpse on-board the downed Vulcan.
His murder was ultimately avenged by his sister Dominique, who shot Emilio Largo, the mastermind of the conspiracy, dead while he was in a fight with Bond.
Novel background[]
In the novel, the hijacked aircraft is the fictional Villiers Vindicator, rather than a Avro Vulcan.
In the novel of the same name, the characters of Derval and Palazzi were one in the same individual; Giuseppe Petacchi, a NATO airman who had been bribed by SPECTRE to hijack the plane and bring it to Largo. The choice of Petacchi was largely due to his unequaled skill with aquatic landings and his weakness for women and material gain. On completion of his mission, he was murdered by Vargas.
In the unofficial non-EON 1983 film, Never Say Never Again, which was based on Thunderball and also starred Sean Connery as Bond, the character of Jack Petachi was a pastiche of Giuseppe Petachi and Francois Derval. In this film, Jack Petachi is a US Air Force officer who conspires with SPECTRE to hijack nuclear weapons through genetic surgery where one of his eyes is altered to match the same retina pattern as the President of the United States, thus allowing Petachi access to the desired weaponry. The reason for conspiring with SPECTRE was chemical dependency, in this case SPECTRE was supplying Petachi with a steady supply of heroin in exchange for doing their bidding. After finishing his mission, Jack Petachi is murdered by Fatima Blush.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Fiona Volpe (1).jpg (791 KB)")
See also[]
- Thunderball
- Dominique Derval
- Angelo Palazzi
- Fiona Volpe
- Count Lippe
- Giuseppe Petacchi
- List of James Bond allies