Obscure SPECTRE Agent Question (from Thunderball)

Bigglesworth · June 2023

The SPECTRE agents that meet with Blofeld and Largo in Thunderball (starting at 8:45 into the film) aren't actually credited at the end of the film, but a number of books and online resources identify the actors and match them up with their SPECTRE agent numbers (including IMDB). In my attached photos, I've confirmed that the actors are matched with their (uncredited) numbers.

Working away from Blofeld, the numbers seem to zig-zag back and forth from left to right for awhile, get mixed up where #8 should go (subbing in #13 and #14), and then reverse course (right to left) for the last four.

Does anyone know where these actor/# pairings came from? Some are obvious from the film. When Blofeld asks for a report from #7, Cecil Cheng answers. But most are never referred to by number and - again - they don't show up in the closing titles. Did someone just make these listings up, or is there a reason to believe they're accurate?

There is also a guy sitting at the front of the original SPECTRE meeting (Gary Colleano). He is listed on IMDB (and elsewhere) as #11, even though Murray Kash is also listed as #11 and is clearly referred to as such in the scene. But Gary shows up in a later scene in the film, along with Jaron Yaltan (whose #14 screws up the original counting sequence). This makes me wonder if maybe they were identified in a call sheet or something like that?

Any ideas?

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