He later moved to France and became a leading businessman through energy trading, eventually transitioning into the electronics industry and operating on the microchip market.

However, it is revealed later in the movie that he was the product of Nazi medical experimentation during the war, in which pregnant women were injected with massive quantities of steroids in an attempt to create "super-children."

[2][3] Zorin is completely ruthless and displays a near-total lack of loyalty to his own men, as shown when he oversaw the execution of a Soviet spy who attempted to sabotage his oil well operations and when he personally massacres dozens of his own mine workers with a 9mm Uzi submachine gun to ensure the success of his own plans.

Despite his long-standing and intimate relationship with his right-hand woman May Day, he willingly sacrifices her for the sake of his plans, although this betrayal would backfire on him later on.

She escapes onto the bridge with Bond, and Zorin attempts to attack them both with an axe, but in the scuffle he loses his grip of the framework and falls to his death into San Francisco Bay.

The role was initially offered to David Bowie, who turned it down, saying, "I didn't want to spend five months watching my stunt double fall off cliffs.

Legal problems arose before the film's release when producers became aware there was a pre-existing similarly named Zoran Corporation which made microchips.