Novel Bio
Le Chiffre, alias "Die Nummer", "Mr. Number", "Herr Ziffer", "Ochiu Spart" (Romanian for "Smashed Eye") and other translations of "The Number" or "The Cipher" in various languages, is the paymaster of the "Syndicat des Ouvriers d'Alsace" (French for "Alsatian Workmen's Union"), a SMERSH-controlled trade union.
He is first encountered as an inmate of the Dachau displaced persons camp in the US zone of Germany in June 1945 and transferred to Alsace-Lorraine and Strasbourg three months later on a stateless passport. There he adopts the name Le Chiffre because as he claims, he is "only a number on a passport". Not much else is really known about Le Chiffre's background or where he comes from, except for educated guesses based on his description:
Height 5 ft 8 ins (173 cm). Weight 18 stones (114 kg, 252 lbs). Complexion very pale. Clean shaven. Hair red-brown, 'en brosse' (crew cut). Eyes very dark brown with whites showing all round iris. Small, rather feminine mouth. False teeth of expensive quality. Ears small, with large lobes. Hands small, well-tended, hirsute. Feet small. Racially, subject is probably a mixture of Mediterranean with Prussian or Polish strains. He dresses well and meticulously, generally in dark double-breasted suits.
He is also fluent in French, English, and German with traces of a Marseille accent.
In the novel, he makes a major investment in a string of brothels with money belonging to SMERSH. The investment fails after a bill is signed into law banning prostitution. Le Chiffre then goes to the casino Royale-les-Eaux in an attempt to recover all of his lost funds. There, however, Bond bankrupts him in a series of games in Chemin de Fer. Le Chiffre kidnaps Bond's assistant, Vesper Lynd, to lure him into a trap and get his money back. The trap works, and Le Chiffre tortures Bond (by repeatedly striking his testicles with a carpet beater) to get him to give up the money. He is interrupted by a SMERSH agent, however, who shoots him between the eyes with a silenced TT pistol as punishment for losing the money. The torture Bond suffers at the hands of Le Chiffre briefly upsets 007's confidence in his profession, and he toys with the idea of leaving the service until the novel's conclusion, when a new threat emerges.
Le Chiffre's death is seen by the Soviet government as an embarrassment, which in addition to the death and defeat of Mr. Big in Live and Let Die, leads to the events of From Russia With Love.
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