Villains Beginning With 'A'

Auric Goldfinger

Goldfinger film (1964)
created by author Ian Fleming (1959)

In the novel, Auric Goldfinger is a 42 year-old expatriate who emigrated at age 20 in 1937 from Riga, Latvia. He is 5 feet tall, has blue eyes, red hair, and has a passion for his tan.

Now a UK commonwealth citizen naturalised to Nassau, he has become the richest man in England, though his wealth is not in English banks and he hasn't paid taxes on it. Rather, it is spread as bullion in many countries. Goldfinger is the treasurer of SMERSH, Bond's nemesis.

Goldfinger is obsessed with gold, going so far as to have yellow-bound erotic photographs, and have his women painted head to toe in gold so that he can make love to gold. He is also a jeweler, a metallurgist, and a smuggler.

When Goldfinger first meets Bond in Miami, he claims that he is agoraphobic; a ploy to allow him to cheat a previous acquaintance of Bond's at a game of two-handed Canasta. Bond figures out how Goldfinger is managing this, and blackmails him by forcing him to admit his deception. Goldfinger is also an avid golfer, but is known at his club for being a smooth cheater there, also. When Bond contrives to play a match with Goldfinger, he again cheats the cheater by switching Goldfinger's Dunlop 1 golf ball with a Dunlop 7 he had found while playing.

Goldfinger is the owner of "Enterprises Auric A.G." in Switzerland, maker of metal furniture, which is purchased by many airlines including Air India. Twice a year, Goldfinger drives his vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost car from England to Enterprises Auric. Bond learns that Goldfinger makes dead drops of gold bars for SMERSH along the way, and that his car's bodywork is 18 carat (75%), solid white gold under the ploy that the added weight is armour plating. Once at Enterprises Auric, his car is stripped down, melted and made into seating for an airline company that Enterprises Auric is heavily invested in. The plane(s) are then flown to India where the seats are melted down again into gold bars and sold for a much higher premium rate; 100 to 200% proof.

"Operation Grand Slam" is Goldfinger's codename for his scheme that involves "knocking off" the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Through the use of a nerve agent (GB, also known as Sarin), Goldfinger plans to poison the water supply at Fort Knox, killing everyone at the base. From there, Goldfinger would use an atomic warhead purchased for one million USD in Germany, to blow open Fort Knox's impregnable vault. With the help of American gangsters, Goldfinger would then remove roughly 15 billion dollars in gold bullion by truck and train, and escape to the Soviet Union on a cargo boat.

Bond foils Goldfinger's plan by getting word to Felix Leiter of the impending operation, by means of a message taped inside an airliner toilet. With the help of The Pentagon, Leiter is able to stop Goldfinger and foil the operation. But Goldfinger escapes.

Later, Goldfinger and his henchman learn from SMERSH who Bond is, and determine to take him with them in defecting to the Soviet Union. They pose as doctors to incapacitate crew and passengers (including Bond) with drugged inoculations. Then they hijack the BOAC Stratocruiser, carrying Goldfinger's total savings of gold. The hijacked plane is headed for Soviet Union airspace. Goldfinger's henchman Oddjob meets his end by being sucked through an airliner window after Bond pierces it with a knife. Goldfinger then attacks James Bond, but Bond strangles him to death.

In the film Goldfinger is a gold smuggler, accomplishing this feat by having a car built with gold body castings and transporting it via airplane. Once the car arrives at its destination, Goldfinger has the body-work re-smelted. Goldfinger is also an avid golfer who plays with a Slazenger 1 golf ball.

Auric Goldfinger owns many properties throughout the world including "Auric Enterprises, AG", which is the headquarters for most of his smuggling operations. Located in Switzerland, it is where Bond nearly gets cut in half by an industrial laser when Goldfinger has him bound to a table.

Goldfinger also owns a stud-farm in Kentucky called "Auric Stud".

In the film, Goldfinger's ethnicity is Teutonic and has a heavy German accent and red-blond hair.

Codenamed "Operation Grand Slam", Goldfinger plans to break into the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, penetrating the main storage building with the high powered laser, and detonating a "dirty" nuclear weapon inside, thus contaminating the United States gold reserve and thereby dramatically increasing the value of his gold holdings.

After his plan to contaminate the gold is thwarted, Goldfinger kidnaps Bond and plans to take his vengeance before fleeing to Cuba. During a struggle aboard an airplane, his gun goes off and shatters a window and he is sucked out to his death.

His henchmen include; Oddjob and Pussy Galore and Pussy Galore's Flying Circus

 

 

SUMMARY

 

ARCH RIVAL :	James Bond.
STRENGTHS :	The richest man in Britain and the treasurer of SMERSH, Goldfinger was wealthy and influential. He owned numerous properties and a stud farm which he could use to hide his activities. He is also a jeweler, a metallurgist, and a smuggler.
WEAKNESSES :	His weakness was gold. Goldfinger was driven by his need for gold and would go to extreme measures to increase the value of his own gold.
WEAPONS :	Guns and an industrial laser cutting machine.
QUOTE :	"No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die! "

 

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