| “ | Oh, you must excuse Oddjob, Mr. Bond. He's an admirable manservant but mute. | „ |
| ~ Goldfinger introducing Oddjob to James Bond. |
| “ | 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 on Oddjob |
Oddjob is the secondary antagonist of the 1959 James Bond novel Goldfinger and its 1964 film adaptation. He was the personal bodyguard and enforcer of Auric Goldfinger and a fiercely mute opponent for James Bond. He is primarily known for his steel-rimmed hat which he uses as a deadly throwing projectile. Like Red Grant and Jaws, Oddjob is considered as one of the most famous henchmen of the franchise.
He was portrayed by the late wrestler Harold Sakata.
Biography[]
Goldfinger (novel)[]
Oddjob was a Korean citizen who was perpetually mute, but extremely strong as he was able to break the railing of a staircase with his hand and the mantel of a fireplace with his foot. He is also revealed to have a taste for cats as food, apparently acquired in Korea when food was in short supply; this was shown when Bond frames Goldfinger's yellow cat for the destruction of surveillance film, which resulted in an angry Goldfinger feeding the cat to Oddjob as punishment. Eventually, Oddjob was killed when Bond used a knife to shatter the window next to his seat on an airplane, which depressurized the plane and sucked Oddjob out of the window to his death.
Goldfinger (film)[]
At the beginning, Oddjob enters Bond's hotel suite, where he knocks out James Bond and kills Jill Masterson by covering her in gold paint as punishment for selling out Goldfinger.
During Golfinger's game of golf with Bond, Oddjob acts as Goldfinger's caddie. When Bond later tricks Goldfinger, the latter orders Oddjob to give him a demonstration of his strength. Oddjob then uses his steel rimmed heat to sever the head of a nearby marble statue before crushing a golf ball with his hand.
While Bond and Tilly Masterson sneak around Goldfinger's facility at night, Oddjob used his hat to kill Tilly before capturing Bond. The agent tries to escape, but is then captured again after a car chase through the compound. However, Goldfinger decides to spare Bond for the moment after being duped by the latter to believe that he knows about Operation Grand Slam.
As it turns out, Operation Grand Slam involves destroying Fort Knox and its supply of gold so that the value of Goldfinger's gold will increase many times to become the most richest man in the world. It also turns out that Oddjob himself is involved of it as he killed Mr. Solo when the latter refused to be a part of Goldfinger's scheme to attack Fort Knox. He then drives the car containing Solo's corpse on a junkyard and presses it into a cube, destroying any evidence.
At the battle for Fort Knox, Goldfinger locks Bond, Oddjob, and Kisch in the gold vault with an atomic bomb given by Mr. Ling. Realizing that they have been betrayed, Kisch tries to disarm the bomb to save himself. However, despite Goldfinger's betrayal, Oddjob tosses Kisch to his death, determined to ensure that Goldfinger's plan succeeds, even at the cost of his own life.
A brutal fight erupts between Oddjob and Bond: Oddjob throws his hat, but Bond ducks and it misses. However, even without the hat, Oddjob proves to be incredibly powerful and almost unstoppable, much to Bond's frustration. Bond eventually gets hold of Oddjob's hat - this is the only time Oddjob shows anything close to fear - and throws it, but Oddjob calmly dodges and it wedges between two bars. Oddjob goes to retrieve it, but when he puts his hand on the steel rim of the hat, Bond grabs an electric cable and connects it to the bars, fatally electrocuting Oddjob when the current travels through the rim.
| “ | Felix Leiter: You okay, James? Where's your butler friend? James Bond: Oh, he blew a fuse. |
„ |
| ~ James Bond on Oddjob's death |
James Bond Jr.[]
Oddjob appeared in the animated series James Bond Jr, as a recurring foe to the title character, who is the teenage nephew of the famous superspy. Unlike his live action counterpart, this Oddjob wears "Hip Hop" style clothing and can speak regularly despite supposedly occuring in the same continuity as the film series.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Strength: Oddjob could throw his hat with enough force to behead a statue with one hit and knock James down with one punch.
- Durability: Oddjob was able to be punched three times by Bond and have a solid gold bar thrown into his midsection without even flinching.
- Stability: Oddjob remained standing despite James Bond grabbing him around the head and trying to wrestle him down.
Arsenal[]
- Steel Tipped Hat: Oddjob's signature weapon which is a bowler hat with razor sharp steel rims which can behead statues with a single hit.
- Glock .457: A pistol that Oddjob used to murder Mr. Solo.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Oddjob was Korean whereas his actor, Harold Sakata, was Japanese-American.
- Harold Sakata actually burnt his hand on the pyrotechnics in Oddjob's death scene.
- Oddjob only actually decapitates something once in the movie which was the statue that he used to show off how deadly his bowler hat is.
- The only other time he killed someone with his hat was Tilly but (most likely to keep a non-adults only rating) it didn't behead her, instead breaking her neck on impact.
- In the book, Oddjob was the one to kill Tilly using his special hat during the Fort Knox scene and not the forest chase scene which was changed in the movie so that her death was much earlier to focus the fight in Fort Knox on James vs Oddjob.
- In the original novel, Oddjob was killed by getting sucked out of the plane window whereas Goldfinger was strangled by Bond's bare hands.
- This was changed due to how horribly violent slowly strangling someone to death with your bare hands would look on film and the film creators created the scene of Oddjob's death by electrocution for the movie.
- For his unusual appearance, manners, strength, and method of killing, Oddjob forms the archetype for many henchmen of the Bond film series, including Tee Hee, Jaws, Gobinda, Necros, Stamper, Zao and Mr. Hinx.
- Oddjob is a secret playable character in the Goldeneye 64 multi-player mode. He became notorious for being hard to kill due to his height. Unlike other characters, the only way to shoot him is by aiming manually.
- Oddjob is parodied in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in the form of Random Task who throws a shoe rather than a hat.
