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.C", which was the headquarters for most of his smuggling operations. It was located in Switzerland. 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.

Novel bio

In the novel, Auric Goldfinger is the richest man in England and the treasurer of SMERSH, Bond's nemesis. Like the film, Goldfinger's passion is gold. He's a jeweler, a metallurgist, and a smuggler as well.

Upon meeting Goldfinger, he explains to Bond that he's agoraphobic, which is a ploy at the time to allow him to cheat a previous acquintance of Bond's at a game of two-handed Canasta. Bond figures out how Goldfinger is cheating and sets out to ruin him by blackmailing and forcing him to admit he was cheating. Goldfinger is also an avid golfer, but is known at his country club for being a smooth cheater. Once again Bond 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" in Switzerland, maker of metal furniture. 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 and 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 was going to poison the water supply at Fort Knox 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.

Secret service agent James Bond foils Goldfinger's plan by getting word to Felix Leiter of the impending operation, who with the help of The Pentagon was able to stop Goldfinger, though Goldfinger escaped.

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. Momentarily later, Mr. Springer had an accident, falling down the staircase as he was leaving.

• 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, however, Goldfinger enlisted Pussy Galore's help in exacting his revenge on Bond, which ultimately failed.

See Also

• Goldfinger
• List of James Bond villains