Auric Goldfinger

Auric Goldfinger is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel Goldfinger. His first name, Auric, is an adjective meaning of gold. Goldfinger was played by Gert Fröbe. Consequently, Goldfinger was banned in Israel after it was revealed that Frobe was a member of the Nazi party. The ban, however, was lifted many years later when a Jewish family publicly thanked Fröbe for protecting them from persecution during World War II.

In 2003, the American Film Institute declared Auric Goldfinger the 49th greatest villain in in the past 100 years of film. (See AFIs 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains)

Film Bio

Arguably the most famous James Bond villain in any film, Goldfinger's obsession was gold. In fact, Goldfinger was a gold smuggler accomplishing this feat by having a workable car built out of gold and transporting it via airplane. Once the car got to its destination, Goldfinger would have it melted down. Goldfinger is also an avid golfer who plays a Slazenger 7 golf ball. He's defeated by Bond, however, when he is tricked by Bond after attempting to cheat.

Auric Goldfinger owned many properties throughout the world including "Auric Enterprises, A.G", which was the headquarters for most of his smuggling operations. It was located in Switzerland. It is here that Bond nearly gets cut in half by an industrial laser when Goldfinger wants to get rid of Bond. (Bond: 'Do you expect me to talk?', Goldfinger: 'No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die.') He also owned a farm in Kentucky that was used for horse breeding called "Auric Stud".

Goldfinger was terminated by being sucked out of an airplane, midflight, when attempting to assassinate Bond.

Scheme

Goldfinger's scheme, codenamed "Operation Grand Slam", involved breaking into the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, and detonating a nuclear weapon thus contaminating the United States gold reserve and thereby dramatically increasing the value of his gold holdings.

Henchmen

• Oddjob
• Pussy Galore & Pussy Galore's Flying Circus

Trivia

• In the film Goldfinger's license plate is "AU 1". Au is the symbol on the periodic table for the element, Gold.
• The voice of Goldfinger had to be done by someone else because of Gert Fröbe's heavy German accent.

Novel bio

In the novel, Auric Goldfinger is the richest man in England and the treasurer of SMERSH, Bond's nemesis. as in the film, Goldfinger's passion is gold. He is also a jeweller, 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 acquintance of Bond's at a game of two-handed Canasta. Bond figures out how Goldfinger is managing this cheating and blackmails him by forcing him to admit his deception. Goldfinger is also an avid golfer, but is known at his golf club for being a smooth cheater. When Bond contrives to play a match with Goldfinger, he again cheats the cheater by switching Goldfinger's Dunlop One with a Dunlop Seven he had found while playing.

Goldfinger is the owner of "Enterprises Auric A.G." in Switzerland, maker of metal furniture, which is bought by many airlines including Air India. A few times during the year, Goldfinger drives his Rolls Royce "Silver Ghost" car from England to Enterprises Auric. Bond learns that Goldfinger makes repeated dead drops of gold bars along the way and that his car's bodywork is eighteen-carat, solid white gold under the ploy that the added weight is armor plating. Once at Enterprises Auric, his car is stripped down, melted and made into furniture (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; one hundred to two hundred percent profit.

Operation Grand Slam

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 chemical created by the Germans during World War II, Goldfinger plans to poison the water supply at Fort Knox, thus rendering everyone in the town (60,000) dead. From there Goldfinger would use an atomic bomb he had purchased for one million USD 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 and escape.

James Bond foils Goldfinger's plan by getting word to Felix Leiter of the impending operation. With the help of The Pentagon Leiter was able to stop Goldfinger, and foil the operation. But Goldfinger escapes.

Goldfinger met his end while trying to escape to the Soviet Union. He was choked to death by James Bond after attempting to get his revenge.

Henchmen

• Oddjob

Associates

In addition to Henchmen, Goldfinger enlisted the help of several American gangsters:

• Helmut M. Springer — The Purple Gange (Detroit)

Mr. Springer backed out of the deal and did not participate in Goldfinger's Operation Grand Slam. Moments later, Mr. Springer had an "accident", falling down the staircase as he was leaving. In fact, he was killed by Oddjob.

• Jed Midnight — Shadow Syndicate (Miami, Havana)
• Billy (The Grinner) Ring — The Machine (Chicago)
• Jack Strap — The Spangled Mob (Las Vegas); See Diamonds Are Forever
• Mr. Solo — Unione Siciliano
• Miss Pussy Galore — The Cement Mixers (Harlem, New York City)

All of the gangsters that participated in Operation Grand Slam were subsequently shot when the operation failed, but Goldfinger enlisted Pussy Galore's help in exacting his revenge on Bond, which ultimately failed.

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

Auric Goldfinger was brought back to life in the 2004 Electronic Arts video game GoldenEye: Rogue Agent. In the game Goldfinger recruits the player character, a former secret agent ousted by MI6. Goldfinger is also an ally of Francisco Scaramanga the villain of The Man with the Golden Gun.

See Also

• Goldfinger
• List of James Bond villains