Goldfinger / Characters

Main Character Index

Characters sheet for the novel and James Bond film Goldfinger.

open/close all folders

MI6

Bond's Allies

Felix Leiter

Pussy Galore

"You can turn off the charm. I'm immune."

Played by: Honor Blackman (Film), Rosamund Pike (2010 Radio Drama)

"If you set fire to that thing, I swear I'll KO you with my gold brick."

—Pussy Galore addressing Jack Strap, in Goldfinger (the novel)

A right-hand woman in service of Goldfinger. She is the leader of a Flying Circus, a group of women aviators who are a key part of Goldfinger's "Operation Grand Slam". Bond manages to seduce her and have her switch allegiance, whereas she claimed to be "immune".

Ace Pilot: As she tells Bond, Goldfinger hired her because she's "a damn good pilot."
Adaptation Dye-Job: She's a brunette in the book.
Adaptational Backstory Change: The film omits her rather unhappy backstory of growing up in poverty, a life of crime and delinquency and molestation.
Adaptational Badass: In the movie, she pulls a judo flip in the process of stopping Bond from pulling the trick that stopped Goldfinger in the book.
Adaptational Job Change: In the book, she's the leader of gang of lesbian burglars. In the film, she's Goldfinger's personal pilot and the leader of an all-female squadron of civilian pilots named her "Flying Circus".
Adaptational Nationality: In the book, she comes from the American South. In the film, she's English.
Adaptational Skill: She was neither a pilot nor a judo expert in the novel. The latter came from Blackman herself.
Amazon Brigade: Her Flying Circus.
Ambiguously Gay: The film's only hint to her sexuality is a remark about being "immune" to Bond's charms.
Dark Action Girl: While she's one of Goldfinger's deadly henchmen, she and Bond have many fights.
Does Not Like Men: At first, until she met Bond.
Double Entendre: As with many of Ian Fleming's creations, the name is a double entendre — pussy being a slang term for a cat or for a vulva. At one point the producers took advantage of that when, concerned about censors, they considered changing her name to "Kitty Galore", but decided to keep the original name.
Girl of the Week: The main Bond Girl for this film.
Heel–Face Turn: Bond convinces her to turn against Goldfinger; alert the CIA of her employer's scheme, and replace the deadly nerve gas that Goldfinger planned to have her aviators spray over Fort Knox with a different, harmless substance.
Love Redeems: Falling for Bond helped her a lot with the mentioned Heel–Face Turn.
Meaningful Name: Going by the meaning of "pussy" as being a slang term for a vulva, it's fitting that a woman named Pussy Galore is the leader of a numerous group of women aviators.
Ms. Fanservice: She spends her screen time in some quite form-fitting clothes.
No Bisexuals: Ian Fleming's take on the literary character is that she had yet to meet a real man. (She was unable to outrun her uncle at age 12).
Nominal Hero: Pussy is a full participant in Goldfinger's plot to set off a nuclear bomb at Fort Knox, which would kill 60,000 people and cause economic chaos in the entire western world, and is motivated solely by money. While she eventually pulls a Heel–Face Turn and does more to stop Goldfinger than even Bond himself, her motivations for this are a combination of falling in love with Bond and realizing her partnership with the dangerously psychopathic Goldfinger is doomed anyway rather than any sudden change in morality.
Punny Name: In the film this was supposed to be lampshaded, with Bond's response to her telling him her name being "I'm sure you are, but what's your name?" but this was considered likely to annoy the censors. Bond's incredulous "I must be dreaming" is lampshading enough.
Rape and Switch: She apparently became a lesbian because her uncle raped her when she was young.
Rape as Backstory: The book mentions that she was raped by her uncle at aged 12. This led to her dislike of men and preference for women. Until Bond shows up, of course.
Sex–Face Turn: After sleeping with Bond, she pulls a Heel–Face Turn and turns against Goldfinger.
Slap-Slap-Kiss: She ends up falling for Bond after sparring with him.

Villains

Auric Enterprises

Goldfinger

Auric Goldfinger

"Man has climbed Mount Everest, gone to the bottom of the ocean. He's fired rockets at the Moon, split the atom, achieved miracles in every field of human endeavor... except crime!"

Played by: Gert Fröbe (Film), Ian McKellen (2010 Radio Drama)

Voiced by: Michael Collins (English), Duncan Elliott (European French)

"Mr. Bond, Mr. Bond, all my life I have been in love. I have been in love with gold. I love its colour, its brilliance, its divine heaviness..."

In the film, Goldfinger is a successful British businessman, owning many properties throughout the world including "Auric Enterprises, AG" in Switzerland, and a stud-farm in Kentucky called "Auric Stud". However, his real business is that of internationally smuggling gold, using the method of having a car built with gold body castings and transporting it via airplane before having the body-work re-smelted once it arrives at its destination. After Goldfinger's business affairs come under suspicion from the Bank of England, Bond is sent to investigate.

Adaptational Intelligence: He's a smart man in both the novel and the film, but the film version comes off as smarter for a simple reason: in the novel, the plan was to steal the gold, which as the film points out is impossible to do in the window of time that Goldfinger has. Film Goldfinger instead uses the theft as a cover to render it radioactive and useless so his own gold becomes even more valuable.
Adaptational Job Change: In the novel, he's the treasurer for SMERSH. In the film, he works independently and allies himself with Red China.
Adaptational Nationality: He's Latvian in the novel. In the film, he's said to be British, but speaks with a German accent.
Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if his informed nationality of "British but doesn't sound it" is a cover for him being an emigre from the Third Reich based on the bemused reaction he has to the stakes of the golf game being a bar of what is clearly Nazi gold (the stakes are merely just money in the novel); Gert Frobe himself was a member of the Nazi Party but saved some Jews' lives from the regime.
Ambiguously Gay: Or more likely asexual, since he claims his only passion is the increase of his gold supply. He pays Jill Masterson to hang around with him in public, but according to her that's all he requires of her.
Antagonist Title: Specifically, his last name.
Big Bad: The film's main and titular antagonist.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: As stated in the film's theme song.
Pretty girl, beware of his heart of gold, this heart is cold!
Bling-Bling-BANG!: Has a gold-plated revolver, which technically makes him the first "man with a golden gun" in the Bond movies. In the novel, he has a gold-plated Colt 1908 Vest Pocket, which also made him the first "man with a golden gun" before Scaramanga arrived.
Bond Villain Stupidity: Subverted and played straight.
- While he does keep Bond alive, it's because he prefers keeping Bond under his thumb rather than MI-6 just sending another agent in Bond's place and wants to trick the good guys into thinking Bond is doing better than he actually is. In reality, had Bond not turned Pussy in the eleventh hour, Goldfinger almost certainly would have won. Goldfinger was also perfectly willing to just let Bond be cut in half by his laser, and it's only because he realizes he can't afford to risk the chance that Bond's bluff is not a bluff that Bond survives.
- Played straight in what attracted the attention of MI6 in the first place; using criminal connections to smuggle gold out of England (and as Bond later discovers, several major American cities). Goldfinger is already immensely wealthy, with several legitimately-acquired assets that would ensure he has a massive supply of gold that would increase in value under Operation Grand Slam. He just couldn't resist using any means to stockpile as much as he possibly could, which caught the attention of law enforcement.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: He is fully intent on killing Bond by cutting him in half with an industrial laser in the iconic "No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!" scene, but Bond manages to talk him out of it by convincing Goldfinger that Bond remaining alive and seemingly in control of the situation will ensure that MI6 won't interfere with his Evil Plan.
Goldfinger: You are quite right, Mr. Bond. You are worth more to me alive.
Character Title: His name gives the novel and the film their titles.
Cheaters Never Prosper: Bond puts an end to both his cards and golf cheating schemes.
Continuous Decompression: Interestingly, this was how Oddjob died in the novel, but Goldfinger dies this way in the movie when Bond deliberately uses Goldfinger's gun to shoot a plane window, sucking Goldfinger out of the plane and to his demise.
Color Motifs: Gold, of course. Nearly all of his outfits in the movie feature the colour prominently, he drives a gold-plated Rolls-Royce Phantom III and carries a golden gun. Even Goldfinger's hair is gold. Lampshaded when he states that all his life he has been fond of the colour.
Cool Car: His Rolls-Royce is pretty nice.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: If you can't have the United States' gold reserves, you can always just destroy them and increase the value of your gold. Wiping out the entire population of Fort Knox (civilian and military alike) in the process is just collateral damage.
Crazy-Prepared: He was smart enough to wear an American military uniform to Fort Knox in case something went wrong.
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He runs a number of successful businesses to the point where he really doesn't need to engage in crime to achieve the level of wealth he has. He just wants even more and doesn't care how he gets it, and takes pride in what he describes as a major achievement in crime.
Deadpan Snarker: His famous line as Bond faces a very Freudian death by laser beam.
Bond: Do you expect me to talk?
Goldfinger: No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!
Diabolical Mastermind: He concocted a very elaborate plan to ruin Fort Knox's gold.
Didn't Think This Through: Subverted. 007 thinks that he hasn't thought his plan through and points out to him that even if he used his nerve gas on the whole population of Fort Knox, he'd never have enough time to transport the gold from the vaults before military reinforcements came. What he doesn't know is, as Goldfinger explains to him, stealing it isn't part of the plan; his true goal involves detonating a bomb to render the gold in Fort Knox radioactive and unusable, thereby making the value of his personal foreign holdings in gold skyrocket. (In short, Goldfinger's scheme was intended to be an insider trading scam.)
Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the novel, he is strangled to death by Bond. In the film, he dies by being sucked out of a plane window.
Dirty Communists: In the book, he's the treasurer for SMERSH, while in the film, he obtains his dirty-bomb material from Red China, which views his scheme as an opportunity to create "economic chaos in the West".
Disney Villain Death: He gets sucked out of a plane when a window is broken whilst it's in mid-flight. Interestingly, that was how Oddjob died in the novel.
Dressing as the Enemy: Uses this tactic to escape Fort Knox once Operation Grand Slam fails. It is worth mentioning that he already had the uniform on under his coat with the hat in his pocket just in case he needed it.
Equal-Opportunity Evil: In the book, he hires mostly Germans and Koreans, and his associates are American gangsters including at least one all-lesbian gang.
Evil Brit: Felix Leiter says he's "British, but he doesn't sound like it."
Evil Genius: He has an elaborate plan to ruin Fort Knox's gold, after all. Bond, who with almost all other Bond villains has always used No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine as an opportunity to snidely insult his hosts, even sincerely compliments Goldfinger on his plan after learning the full details.
Evil Gloating:
- Played with when he brags about the laser but then is about to let Bond die, but doesn't.
- Played straight when he shows a room full of men a complicated display of maps and models despite the fact that he intends to kill them all before they even leave the room.
Evil Is Petty: The other entries for his character should make it clear that Goldfinger is fabulously wealthy. He still insists on cheating at golf and card games so he can win what are (to him) rather tiny amounts of money.
Evil Redhead: In the book, he has red hair and blue eyes, which leads to Bond to guess (correctly) that he's of Baltic extraction.
Fat Bastard: Quite a hefty man, and quite the villainous madman.
Fatal Flaw: His Greed, his obsession with all things related to gold, and a penchant for cheating.
Faux Affably Evil: He swings back and forth with this. He threatens Bond with the crotch laser, but when Bond convinces him that he's more worthy alive than dead, he even has him served a mint julep at his estate. Then Goldfinger reveals that he plan includes a nerve gas attack on Fort Knox, and when Bond points out that it will kill thousands, military and civilian alike, Goldfinger dismisses the casualties as no greater than the number of deaths that occur every year due to auto accidents. Through it all, he never loses his good manners, even as he condemns Bond to death.
Goldfinger: Is that julep tart enough for you, Mr. Bond?
Freudian Excuse: In the novel, Bond infers, and is never shown different, that Goldfinger might have been teased and bullied over not only being short but strangely-proportioned "with red hair and a bizarre face".
Go-Karting with Bowser: Inverted in the famous golf game from this movie—Bond and Goldfinger haven't actually met face-to-face in the film despite 007 ruining his cheating at cards, and it's how Bond introduces himself.
Greed: His ultimate goal is to increase the value of his gold reserves by irradiating all the gold in Fort Knox.
Hand Signals:
- He makes a gesture to his henchmen to turn off the laser beam that was about to cut Bond in half.
- After he and his men enter Fort Knox, he gives a signal to one of the men to open the vault.
Hidden in Plain Sight: His entire MO — he fakes being deaf to use a hearing aid (in fact, a receiver for a radio, allowing him to cheat), smuggles gold by driving cross country in a car made of painted gold, lounges pleasantly knowing the CIA is watching him, creates a detailed decoy plan just to fake everyone out until it's too late, and successfully impersonates an officer to escape once his plan goes south.
I Know You Know I Know: In the novel, Bond observes to himself that Goldfinger has the cat killed to make a point that Goldfinger knows Bond used it as a cover for his own interfering with the internal cameras, and that Goldfinger knows that Bond knows this.
Informed Attribute: "He's British, but doesn't sound it", to quote Cec Linder's Felix Leiter.
Interim Villain: Goldfinger is the only villain from the 1960s Bond films who had no connection whatsoever with Blofeld or SPECTRE.
Just Between You and Me: Subverted and inverted.
- He brags about his plan to his business partners, knowing that he's going to kill them all anyway and that it won't make the slightest bit of difference if he tells them. What he doesn't realize is that Bond is listening in on his little presentation; however, Bond misinterprets his plan and thinks that he intends to steal all of Fort Knox's gold when in actual fact he intends to make it radioactive.
- In fairness to Bond, and credit to Goldfinger's intelligence, he is out-and-out lying to his business partners; Bond doesn't realize it until he does some mental arithmetic and realizes that it would be impossible to get away with that much gold.
Karmic Death: Dies when he fires his gun aboard a plane and is sucked out by the pressure. In the book, Bond simply throttles him, with the Karmic Death instead going to his surviving henchmen, who all drown due to the crashed plane being weighted down with their boss's ill-gotten gains.
Kick the Dog: For starters, he murders Jill Masterson just because she was witness to Bond defeating Goldfinger's card-cheating scheme. In the novel, as if we needed more proof what a sleazebag he is, he makes a point of asking if Bond likes cats and then giving his cat to Oddjob to be eaten.
Kiss of Death: In the theme song, girls are warned to beware of "The Kiss of Death from Mr. Goldfinger".
Lack of Empathy: He couldn't care less about how many people his plan will kill or the devastation that will follow. When Bond mentions the potential death toll of Goldfinger's plan, Goldfinger just shrugs and remarks "American motorists kill that many every two years".
Large and in Charge: The film's Goldfinger is a heavyset man who stands 6'1", only making him slightly shorter than Sean Connery and 3 inches taller than the 5'10" Harold Sakata (Oddjob).
Large Ham: A villain who loves to boast, to say the least.
- "Man has climbed Mount Everest, gone to the bottom of the ocean. He's fired rockets at the Moon, split the atom, and achieved miracles in every field of human endeavor... EXCEPT CRIME!!!"
- "NO, Mister Bond, I expect you to DIE!"?
- Better still - Gert Fröbe was a unilingual German speaker. He spoke all of his lines phonetically, and they were dubbed over afterwards.
Last Villain Stand: He corners Bond on a plane to the White House, holding him up with a literal golden gun, only to miss his target and shoot a window before being sucked out of the plane and falling to his death.
Loves Only Gold: Even more so in the book, where he goes so far as to have yellow-bound erotic photographs and have his lovers painted head to toe in gold so that he can make love to gold. The Shirley Bassey song even states "He loves only gold, only gold".
Lying by Omission: He offers his creditors a tenfold increase in repayment of the gold he owes them if they wait for the completion of his plan to break into Fort Knox. While they conclude he means to just steal the gold, he actually intends to just set off a nuclear bomb inside, changing the value of the gold he's paying them.
Man of Wealth and Taste: He's pretty well off, to say the very least.
Meaningful Name: He's got a passion for gold, though he has anything but a heart of gold. Even his first name is a reference to gold, "Auric" being a measurement for an ion of gold and "aurum" being Latin for gold.
Mister Big: In the book, he is barely five feet tall.
A Million Is a Statistic: Discussed. When Bond points out that Goldfinger's nerve gas attack will kill thousands, military and civilian alike, for no greater cause than what is essentially armed robbery, Goldfinger dismisses the casualties as no greater than the number of deaths that occur every year due to auto accidents.
Mr. Exposition: He explains how the laser works. Justified in that laser technology was just a few years old at the time.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Goldfinger (...He's a man, a man with a Midas touch, a spider's touch...)
The Napoleon: In the book, when Bond takes note of his short stature, he wonders if his money hoarding is a case of the Napoleon Complex and continues the train of thought by noting that "smallest men cause the worst problems".
Near-Villain Victory: His attempt to nuke Fort Knox and radiate the gold and make it useless was going very well... That is, he would have succeeded if Pussy Galore didn't have a Heel–Face Turn (thanks to James Bond) and replaced the nerve gas in her pilots' planes with a harmless placebo.
No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: In the book, he is on the receiving end from Bond and it ends in Bond strangling him to death.
No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: He serves Bond a mint julep, explains his plan, and has Pussy give him a tour. Trope Namer, more or less.
Non-Action Big Bad: Downplayed. Though he prefers to have Oddjob, Pussy Galore, or his Chinese soldiers do the fighting for him, he's not above personally fighting Bond himself, as shown at the end of the film.
Pragmatic Villainy: Why steal from Fort Knox outright when you can nuke it and drive up the value of your personal gold even more? This is what his Evil Plan is in the movie. Knowing he had little time, Goldfinger knew it would take more manpower to steal all the gold. The theft was just a ruse to hide his real intent.
- Also, on a more personal note, upon capturing Bond, he decides to keep him alive as a means of fooling MI6 into believing that he is safe, all part of his true intent to have Bond strapped to the nuke that will destroy Fort Knox.
Red Right Hand: In the book, he is very short in height (barely five feet), has fiery red hair, very pale skin which he tries to hide with a tan, and has features that are described in narration like "he had been put together with bits of other people's bodies."
Refuge in Audacity: He convinces multiple crime syndicates to help him rob Fort Knox with the argument that no one will be expecting it.
The Rich Want to Be Richer: He's already extremely rich through legitimate means but he wants even more and will do whatever he has to to get it.
Slasher Smile: Sports one during the laser torture scene.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: He's gotten out of many a jam by throwing money at it.
Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: When Bond asks him what the country club's secretary would say about the statue Oddjob decapitated, Goldfinger responds "Oh nothing, Mr. Bond. I own the club".
The Sociopath: He's willing to kill 60,000 people and cause economic chaos in the West for his own profit.
Sore Loser: He hates losing because he always makes wagers involving money/gold and would try to cheat however possible. So when Bond notes that Goldfinger is cheating by having Oddjob drop a new ball from an easy-to-play lie, Bond deliberately swaps Goldfinger's Slazenger 1 for a Slazenger 7 in his hand. Under the strict rules that he himself insisted on, Goldfinger forfeits the entire match for playing the wrong ball and huffs out in anger.
Straight Edge Evil: In the novel, he doesn't smoke or drink, finding the former to be completely against nature. Not so much in the film, where he merrily drinks mint julep.
Take That!:
- Auric Goldfinger is named after Erno Goldfinger, an architect whose buildings Ian Fleming hated. Apparently, Erno threatened to sue Fleming for unauthorized use of his name. In that event, Fleming would have changed the name to Goldprick. OUCH! This was later lampshaded by the title of the third Austin Powers movie, Goldmember.
- It is now speculated that he is also based on a German spy who, amongst other things, once tried to rob the Bank of England during World War I. The story has only recently come to light but Ian Fleming was a fairly high-ranking officer in Naval Intelligence and would have had access to the records (ironically, Frobe was a Nazi spy, but one who assisted Jews in escaping the regime, a fact that prevented a boycott of the movie).
Tempting Fate: His boast to the gangsters that his "plan is foolproof!" Too bad he's up against James Bond.
Unrelated in the Adaptation: In the books he works for SMERSH. In the film, he is ostensibly working for Red China, but most of the plan is Goldfinger's initiative, making him unique in the Connery-Lazenby films in that he is unaffiliated with SPECTRE.
"The Villain Sucks" Song: The movie's iconic theme tune is three magnificent minutes of Shirley Bassey warning us about what a bastard Goldfinger is.
Villainous Breakdown: He loses his cool once 007 foils his plan to irradiate the American gold supply. He dresses up as an American military officer to escape Fort Knox once Operation Grand Slam fails, then tries to kill Bond aboard a plane, but is sucked out by the air pressure when he fires his gun on a window.
Villain with Good Publicity: He is, for all appearances, a legitimate businessman who dabbles in horse breeding, gold smelting and other endeavors.
We Have Ways of Making You Talk: Subverted. He doesn't expect Bond to talk. He expects him to die.
Wealth's in a Name: He has, unsurprisingly, a substantial hoard of gold.
Wham Line: "Who said anything about removing it?" Bond's reaction to this is priceless, realizing Goldfinger plans to nuke the American gold reserves and increase the value of his personal gold instead of stealing them outright originally intended.
Wicked Cultured: He likes his things golden. Even his women.
Worthy Opponent: Bond usually takes advantage of dining with the villain to mock them and their plan. When Goldfinger turns this on him and he finally dawns on the actual details of his plan, Bond immediately apologizes and compliments him on the brilliance of the plan.
Xanatos Speed Chess: He actually outplays Bond through most of the film. At least once he does it unknowingly since Bond secretly placed a note with a tracking device on someone he killed for other reasons. In fact, Bond only succeeded due to a Heel–Face Turn by Pussy Galore and he didn't even know she'd turned.
You Have No Chance to Survive:
James Bond: Do you expect me to talk?
Goldfinger: No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: He does this to nearly everyone. He gasses the gangsters that supplied him, shoots Mr. Ling after he arms the bomb, and then locks Oddjob and Kisch in the vault with the bomb. Justified with the latter three, as that was when his plan was starting to fall apart and he was trying to get away.

Oddjob

Played by: Harold Sakata (Film), Jon David Yu (2010 Radio Drama)

"It is astonishing what Oddjob can do. I have seen him hit a brick wall with his entire force and not hurt his hand. He can split three half-inch thick boards, piled one upon the other, with one blow of his hand. You can see what he can do with his foot."

—Auric Goldfinger, Goldfinger

One of the most famous henchmen in the series, Oddjob serves as the loyal Battle Butler to Goldfinger.

Alas, Poor Villain: He is not a good guy by any stretch of the imagination, but he is loyal, brave, and self-sacrificing to a fault without having the kind of sadistic psychopathy of his boss. In any case, his death is absolutely horrifying and Bond's expression as he is electrocuted to death says it all. Made worse when you realize that the electrocution wasn't entirely acted out.
Arsenal Attire: His razor-brimmed bowler hat.
Artistic Licence – Biology: In the novel, it's explained that Oddjob is so strong and tough in part because his martial arts training has built up a thick layer of protective callus, not just on his hands and feet, but even across other parts of his body, giving him a kind of natural armour. Whilst martial artists do develop callus, they don't grow it on their whole body and certainly not to the thickness implied by Oddjob.
Awesome, but Impractical: His razor-edged bowler hat, which he can throw with enough force to decapitate a statue (in the film), but due to its circular edge isn't easy to remove without cutting yourself. In Real Life, TV presenter Denis Van Outen accidentally hit herself in the face with the actual prop when handling it on live TV. There's also the fact that he's basically got one shot with it, then he's forced to go out of his way to retrieve it.
Badass in a Nice Suit: Never seen without an Edwardian suit, including his trademark bowler hat.
Battle Butler: He's a butler-cum-bodyguard and is a master martial artist whose whole body is covered in protective calluses.
Breakout Villain: Oddjob is easily one of the most popular and recognizable Bond villains in the whole franchise due to his iconic hat, steely demeanor, and sheer toughness.
Bring It: Gestures upwards towards himself after throwing Bond across the room during their fight, challenging him to continue.
The Brute: He's Goldfinger's powerhouse, a huge, musclebound man that loves to fight and is very good at it.
Charles Atlas Superpower: He is incredibly tough and strong, able to crush golfballs in his bare hands and shrug off gold bricks to the clavicle, simply because of his martial arts training. And in the movie, he's not even explicitly stated to be the martial arts master that he is in the novel.
Composite Character: A minor case but in the movie, he holds Goldfinger's clubs during the golf game ("Golf is not yet the national sport of Korea, eh?"), adding to his role as Goldfinger's go-to guy; in the novel, the villain's caddie is a separate character with no lines named Foulks.
Continuous Decompression: How he meets his end in the book. Recalling a case where this trope actually occurred, Bond deliberately stabs right through a plane window, sucking Oddjob out of the plane and to his demise.
Dastardly Dapper Derby: He wears a blade-tipped bowler, which was made behind the scenes by turning a chakram into a hat
Determinator: Nothing that Bond throws at Oddjob in the final fight does stop him.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: In the novel, he dies by being sucked out of a plane window. In the film, he is electrocuted.
Disposing of a Body: He shoots Mr. Solo in a car and then takes the car to the crusher.
The Dragon: Arguably the Trope Codifier for Bond villains. If you don't have a lackey in your employ that doesn't inspire a ton of Oh, Crap! moments out of Bond the way Oddjob does, you're not going to be an effective Bond villain.
Elective Mute: Due to him not knowing English, which he never seemed to bother to learn.
Face Death with Dignity: He doesn't seem bothered about being locked in the vault with the active bomb. In fact, Kisch panics and rushes to disarm the bomb, but Oddjob chases him down and throws him to his death.
A Glass in the Hand: He crushes a golf ball in his hand, although he seems rather cheery about it.
Hand Signals: He makes a two-handed "Get up" gesture to Bond when Bond is lying on the floor during the fight between the two in the Fort Knox vault.
He Who Must Not Be Heard: Due to never having learned English (he suffers from a cleft palate in the novel.) The only sounds he ever makes in the film are variations of "Ah-ah!" to accompanied gestured orders or to acknowledge when Goldfinger calls him, and later his screaming in pain as he's electrocuted by Bond when he electrifies the metal bars that are holding Oddjob's hat.
High-Voltage Death: He is killed when Bond applies a live electrical cable to some steel bars as Oddjob is retrieving his metal-lined hat from the bars. "He blew a fuse," indeed.
I Am a Humanitarian: In the book, it is implied that also likes to eat people along with cats.
Implacable Man: Don't bother fighting Oddjob, he'll shrug off anything you throw at him. Don't bother reasoning with him, he would die to ensure his master's plan's success.
Impossibly Cool Weapon: His razor-rimmed hat.
Improbable Weapon User: He kills people with his hat.
Intimidation Demonstration:
- He demonstrates his ability with his killer bowler hat early in the film, Foreshadowing the fight with Bond at the end.
- He also crushes a golf ball in his bare hands, displaying his physical skill and toughness.
Lead the Target: Part of his Improbable Aiming Skills with his lethal hat are because of this trope; he noticeably aims a significant distance in front of his moving target, and hits her cleanly on the neck despite the hat being much more slow moving than a bullet or an arrow.
Leitmotif: Some of Oddjob's more sudden appearances are accompanied by a two-note theme with chimes.
Made of Iron: Receives a gold ingot to the clavicle and doesn't flinch. The only thing that got a reaction from him was being electrocuted, which also killed him.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Had he not thrown Kisch off a stairway at Fort Knox for trying to defuse the bomb that would kill him, Kisch and Bond, the latter would not have been able to grab the keys Kisch had on him and free himself from the handcuffs that were binding him to the bomb. Therefore, he would not have been able to kill Oddjob and escape the wrath of the bomb.
No-Sell: Other than Jaws, Bond usually manages to get at least a few good hits in on the Giant Mook guys he faces. Nothing he throws at Oddjob in the final fight so much as makes him flinch. If anything he seems vaguely amused at Bond's attempts to fight back.
Oh, Crap!: A mild example. He stops smiling and actually looks wary when Bond picks up his hat and threatens him with it.
Only One Name: He only goes as Oddjob, the name given to him by Goldfinger to describe his duties to his employer.
Personal Mook: He is Goldfinger's Battle Butler and chaffeur.
Psychotic Smirk: He flashes a lot of these, especially during his climactic fight with Bond.
Red Right Hand: In the book, his rigorous training has left the skin on his hands and feet extremely hardened (and the former is described to be without nails), and he has a cleft palate that makes his speech hard to understand to everyone except his master and lastly, all his teeth are blackened.
Silent Antagonist: He is mute for the most part.
Silent Snarker: His amused reactions in his fight with Bond speak volumes.
Stout Strength: Harold Sakata weighed some 280 lbs and won a Silver Medal in Weightlifting at the 1948 Olympics. Oddjob might look very overweight, but his build is pure muscle.
Strong and Skilled: He's both incredibly strong, enough to crush a golf ball with one hand, and a skilled fighter who uses Judo and wrestling moves to fight Bond.
The Straight and Arrow Path: In the book, he's not only talented at karate but wields a bow and arrow. Just to show how good of a shot he is, he pins a ring that was being passed to Bond to a tree trunk, and Bond notes that even if he could draw his PPK, Oddjob would have slammed an arrow into him before he could even aim.
Taking You with Me: When he, Kisch, and Bond are locked in a vault at Fort Knox with an active bomb, he chases down Kisch as he tries to disable the bomb and throws him to his death in order to make sure Bond dies, not caring if it kills him too.
Tap on the Head He knocks out Bond with a judo chop to the back of the neck.
Trademark Favourite Food: In the novel, Oddjob has a fondness for cat flesh, apparently a result of surviving a famine as a child by eating cats.
Tranquil Fury: When Bond returns the original golf ball he failed to find back to him, he proceeds to crush it in his hand with no emotion.
Undying Loyalty: Would die to ensure his master's plan's success, as seen when Goldfinger seals him in the vault with the bomb in the film, and he kills Kisch, also trapped with them, rather than let him free them or turn the bomb off.
The Unintelligible: In the novel, he has a cleft palate.
Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: Bond uses the metal in his hat and iron bars in Fort Knox to set up a trap so that he can electrocute Oddjob.
The Voiceless:
- Of the "can't/doesn't speak another language" varient. He doesn't speak English, so he never talks. The only sounds he ever makes are "Ah, Ah!" when notifying Goldfinger during their golf game, and his screaming as he's electrocuted while trying to grab his metal hat when he tries retrieving it from the metal bars it's stuck in as Bond electrocutes the metal bars.
- In the novel, he speaks only rarely, and a cleft palate renders his words unintelligible to everyone except Goldfinger.
Weaponized Headgear: His hat, which has a razor-sharp edge and can be used as a throwing weapon. It is strong enough to decapitate a statue. Bond turns it against him by getting it stuck in an iron fence, then electrifying the bars and killing Oddjob when he tries to pull it loose.
Would Hit a Girl: It's heavily implied that he was the one who painted Jill Masterson gold. More directly, he kills Tilly by throwing his hat at her neck, breaking it.
Wrestler in All of Us: He uses a few wrestling moves during his fight with Bond which fits given that Harold Sakata was a professional wrestler prior to acting.

The Old Lady

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oldladygoldfinger.png

Played by: Varley Thomas

An elderly woman working as a guard to Goldfinger's Switzerland facility's entrance.

Affably Evil: A seemingly nice old lady... when she's not shooting you with her submachine gun.
Artistic Licence – Gun Safety: She holds it by the magazine, which is not a proper way to hold an MP 40. It can cause a jam.
Never Mess with Granny: When Bond escapes with his Aston Martin, she decides to get an MP 40 submachine gun to shoot the car.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: At first sight, just an old lady. Then along comes the submachine gun.
The Voiceless: She doesn't speak at all during her appearance.

Kisch

Played by: Michael Mellinger

A henchman of Goldfinger.

Deadly Gas: He's the one to poison Goldfinger's gangster associates with the nerve gas.
Disney Villain Death: Oddjob throws him off a stairwell for trying to disarm the bomb.
The Generic Guy: He appears regularly throughout the film carrying out several plot-relevant errands for Goldfinger but has almost no characterization.
Know When to Fold 'Em: When he gets locked in the vault with the bomb (and Bond and Oddjob) during Operation Grand Slam, he scrambles to disarm it.
Mook Lieutenant: The most prominent of Goldfinger's regular henchmen, he is given some authority during the attack on Fort Knox.

Mr. Ling

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mr_20ling_large.gif

Played By: Burt Kwouk

A Chinese scientist working with Goldfinger's plot.

Big Bad Wannabe: He acts like a superior to Goldfinger in their interactions, reminding him of deadlines and receiving progress reports from him, as the "on-paper" aim of Goldfinger's scheme is to destabilize the West's economy to benefit the Communist countries. He realises he's being gamed perhaps half a second before Goldfinger puts a round through his heart.
The Evil Genius: He's a nuclear fission scientist and part of the scheme to irradiate Fort Knox.
Mouth of Sauron: He's the representative of the Chinese communists Goldfinger is in bed with.
Oh, Crap!: He noticeably freaks out when Bond bluffs that he has already informed MI6 about Operation Grand Slam. It appears that Goldfinger chooses to keep Bond alive mainly to alleviate the concerns of his Chinese allies.
Smart People Wear Glasses: A bespectacled nuclear scientist.

Other Villains

Mr. Solo

Played by: Martin Benson (Film), Tim Pigott-Smith (2010 Radio Drama)

"Mister, I been watching you. You are a very relaxed man for someone who speaks such big things. Last man I knew was so much relaxed that he got himself totally relaxed by a quick burst of the chopper. OK, OK. So I come in, yes. But, mister, either we get that billion or you get dead."

—Goldfinger (the novel)

The lone gangster invited by Goldfinger who refuses to take part in Operation Grand Slam in the film. Goldfinger allows him to leave, only for him to be killed by Oddjob. His body is left inside the car while it is crushed in a car dump grinder. The other mobsters get gassed to death anyway. In the novel, however, he remains loyal and is later killed by Goldfinger along with the other remaining gangsters.

Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: He smokes one prior to his meeting with Goldfinger.
Even Evil Has Standards: Refuses to take part in Operation Grand Slam, the Big Bad's Evil Plan.
He Knows Too Much: The reason why he gets killed by Oddjob on Goldfinger's orders.
The Mafia: One of the mafiosi who have a meeting with Goldfinger.
Meaningful Name: He's the sole gangster to refuse to take part in Goldfinger's plan in the film. He joins the rest in death anyway when Oddjob shoots him.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: His reaction to Goldfinger's plan in the film. It doesn't save his life.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Goldfinger has him killed after he refuses to take part in his plan after the others get a taste of the Delta Nine nerve gas. In the book, he gets shot by Goldfinger with the other gangsters at a deserted location on the coastline of Cape Hattaras.

Bonita

Played by: Nadja Regin

A belly dancer seen in the pre-title sequence. Bond walks into a bar after planting his explosives at the drug-refining hideout belonging to Mr. Ramirez. Bonita is seen dancing there, much to the delight of the men gathered around her. Most of the customers disappear when the detonator explodes, leaving her to retire to her room and take a bath. Bond then follows her for (apparently) some unfinished business.

All There in the Manual: Her name isn't mentioned in the movie.
Bathtub Scene: She takes a bath after the explosion during the pre-title sequence.
Honey Trap: She seduces Bond into a trap by a mook. It didn't end well for either her or the mook.
Ms. Fanservice: That skimpy dress and the towel are the only clothes that she wears during her appearance.
Revealing Hug: After she kisses Bond, the camera hangs around her for a few seconds in a close-up as Capungo starts creeping up behind Bond as a way to let the audience know that she and Capungo are in cahoots.
Taking the Bullet: Bond narrowly avoids being hit across the head when he catches a glimpse of Capungo creeping up behind him in Bonita's eyes. Bond quickly spins around with Bonita getting the hit on her head instead.
The Vamp: She tries to seduce Bond into a trap.

Capungo

Played by: Alf Joint

A mook briefly seen in the pre-title sequence, very little is learnt about him. He seemingly works for Mr Ramirez and is sent to capture Bond. Whilst Bonita has Bond distracted, he appears from behind a wardrobe and starts to sneak up with a bludgeon behind Bond, who manages to see him reflected in Bonita's eye. At the last moment, Bond turns round so Bonita gets the full force of his attack. After a brutal fight, he is thrown into Bonita's bath where just as he grabs Bond's gun, Bond throws an electrical lamp into the bath, electrocuting him.

All There in the Manual: His name is not mentioned in the movie.
Electrified Bathtub: Bond throws Capungo into Bonita's bathtub. Just as Capungo grabs Bond's PPK, Bond throws a plugged-in lamp into the bathtub, which electrocutes him.
Bond: Shocking. Positively shocking.
High-Voltage Death: Just as he attempts to get 007's gun, Bond tosses an electric lamp in the water-filled tub, which barbecues him. 007 nonchalantly quotes it to be "positively shocking."
In the Back: He sneaks up behind Bond and attempts to bludgeon him. It backfires.
Mooks: It's implied that he's a mook for Mr. Ramirez, the drug lord whose drug laboratory Bond blows up in the pre-title sequence.

Other Characters

Jill Masterson

"I'm beginning to like you, Mr. Bond."

Played by: Shirley Eaton (Film), Anna Louise Plowman (2010 Radio Drama)

"Drew a queen and king. Meld of queens. Can meld kings with a joker. Discarding seven."

—Goldfinger (the novel)

She is employed by Auric Goldfinger to help him win at cards in Miami. She can see Goldfinger's opponent's cards through her high-powered binoculars. Bond silently breaks into her room and ruins Goldfinger's scheme. Jill then gets into bed with Bond. They spent an afternoon together and expected to enjoy the anticipated sleepless night until Bond went to the refrigerator for another bottle of champagne when Oddjob knocked him out. Bond awakens later, only to find Jill's dead body, which is painted entirely in gold.

Body Paint: It's how Oddjob killed her (Goldfinger in the book); completely covering her in gold paint, which blocked up her pores and caused her to suffocate. It turns out that painting somebody won't smother them unless you also block their mouth and nose.
Cruel and Unusual Death: She slowly suffocates to death in a hospital after being completely painted over by Oddjob, and nothing can be done to save her.
Drop Dead Gorgeous: Her naked body painted gold is one of cinema's most enduring images.
Ms. Fanservice: She spends the film in only two types of clothes: a diminutive black bikini and a shirt.
Paid Harem: Subverted; Goldfinger pays her to be seen with him in public, but according to her, that's all he pays her for.
Sacrificial Lamb: Goldfinger orders her killed to send a message to Bond.
Sex–Face Turn: Bond convinces her to ruin Goldfinger's scheme, and then she gets into bed with Bond.
Sex Signals Death: Killed by Oddjob on Goldfinger's orders after having sex with Bond.
We Hardly Knew Ye: The audience gets to know little about her before her death.

Tilly Masterson

Played by: Tania Mallet (Film), Lisa Dillon (2010 Radio Drama)

"He has a woman once a month. Jill told me this when she first took the job. He hypnotises them. Then he-he paints them gold."

—Goldfinger (the novel)

Jill's vengeful sister. She tries to assassinate Goldfinger out of revenge for the murder of Jill.

Adaptation Dye-Job: Like Pussy Galore, she's a brunette in the book.
Adaptational Sexuality: In the book, she's a lesbian and develops a crush on Pussy. None of this is in the film.
Bad Liar: She tells Bond that her name is Tilly Soames and she's in Geneva to ice skate. Bond sees right through it by noticing her attaché case, which has T.M. on it.
Bury Your Gays: In the book, she's revealed to be lesbian and becomes sexually obsessed with Pussy Galore. She later dies during Operation Grand Slam because of her devotion to her.
Cold Sniper: Makes an unsuccessful assassination attempt by firing a sniper rifle at Goldfinger in Switzerland. She nearly hits Bond, which makes him think that Tilly is trying to assassinate him.
Demoted to Extra: Her part was bigger in the book, where she lasted to the climax at Fort Knox. In the film, she dies before leaving Switzerland.
Dropped a Bridge on Her: We're led to believe that she could be an important character, maybe even the Girl of the Week, but she's killed by Oddjob soon after.
Revenge: Tilly wants revenge for the murder of her sister Jill by Goldfinger’s orders.
Sacrificial Lion: Her neck is broken by Oddjob's throwing hat.
Spanner in the Works: She interrupts Bond's mission to recon Goldfinger by trying to assassinate him, which leads to him getting caught.
We Hardly Knew Ye: The audience gets to know little about her before her death.
You Killed My Father: Tilly tries to get revenge from Goldfinger for the murder of her sister Jill.

Characters / Goldfinger

MI6

Bond's Allies

Pussy Galore

Played by: Honor Blackman (Film), Rosamund Pike (2010 Radio Drama)