Tee Hee Johnson, or simply Tee Hee, is a villain in the James Bond film and novel Live and Let Die. In the novel, he is a minor character and working for Mr. Big. In the movie, he is the brutal right-hand man of Dr. Kananga and the secondary antagonist of the 1973 film.
He was portrayed by the late Julius Harris.
In the novel
In the novel before the film, Johnson is one of Mr. Big's many thugs. Differing from the movie, Tee Hee was a henchman with normal human strength (i.e. no metal claw).
When Bond is captured by Mr. Big, he is tortured by Tee Hee. At Big's request, Tee-Hee breaks the little finger of Bond’s left hand, giggling to himself as he performs the action. After it breaks, he is reluctant to stop inflicting the pain. He is killed by Bond, when they get into a fight, and Bond pushes him to his death down a stairwell in a building.
In the movie
He accompanies Kananga to New York. After leaving the embassy, they are followed by Bond. Aware that Bond is following them, Kananga sets a trap at his restaurant "Fillet of Soul". Luring Bond in, they capture him by aid of a hidden trap door. Bond is greeted by three armed minions of Kananga, who is disguised as gang boss Mr. Big. After Bond shortly talks to Kananga's medium Solitaire, Tee Hee enters the room. He asks Solitaire whether Bond is armed, what Solitaire confirms. Knowing he has no choice, Bond opens his jacket, expecting Tee Hee to simply take the gun. However, Tee Hee grabs the gun with the metal claw he has instead of a right arm and crushes the gun barrel, making it impossible for Bond to use the weapon further. With a big smile, he returns the gun to Bond. Bond is then brought before Mr. Big, but eventually escapes.
Returning to San Monique with Kananga, they are followed by Bond. Warned by Solitaire about Bond's arrival, Kananga sets a trap for Bond, with Tee Hee waiting for him at the end, ready to kill. However, Kananga's agent Rosie Carver is instead killed.
Later, Solitaire defects to Bond's side. She shows Bond Kananga's heroin fields, which Tee Hee tells Kananga.
Bond lands in a room in which he is greeted by Tee Hee, Mr. Big and Solitaire. Big tells him that by taking Solitaire with him Bond stole something extremely valuable from his good friend Kananga. Big then tells Bond that while he has plans with Bond, there is at first a question he needs to answer for Kananga. Bond replies that in that case Big had to ship him back to San Monique, as Bond wouldn't answer to lackeys. Though Big angrily asks Bond whether he touched Solitaire, Bond states that he will answer this question only to Kananga, intending to buy time.
However, Big reveals himself as Kananga and tells Bond his plan: to give away the heroin for free to drive the competitors out of business and doubling the amount of addicts, then selling the rest of the heroin for a fortune.
After having revealed his plan, he comes back to his initial question, whether Bond slept with Solitaire. When Bond refuses to answer out of gentlemanliness, Kananga intends to find out another way. He has Tee Hee rip off Bond's watch, which Tee Hee then brings to Kananga. Kananga then tells Tee Hee to snip off Bond's finger on Solitaire's first wrong answer, proceeding to more vital organs with every wrong answer. He then reads a registration number off the back of Bond's watch and asks Solitaire whether he spoke the truth. Solitaire, only able to guess, tells Kananga that he spoke the truth, and Kananga tells Tee Hee to let Bond go, even giving him back his watch. However, Bond is then knocked out by Tee Hee and Kananga orders him to bring Bond to the farm.
Crocodile Farm
“ | There are two ways to disable a crocodile, you know (laughs). Well, one way is to take a pencil and jam it into the pressure hole behind his eyes. Oh, the other's twice as simple. You just put your hand in his mouth and pull his teeth out! | „ |
~ Tee Hee gleefully mocking Bond before leaving him to be eaten by crocodiles. |
Bond is brought to a crocodile farm, which Kananga also uses to create his heroin. Tee Hee brings Bond to the outer parts, where he introduces Bond to the crocodiles. He lures the crocodiles closer by feeding them, thereby explaining to Bond the difference between crocodiles and alligators. He also shows Bond the alligator who bit off his arm, causing him to wear his metal prosthesis instead.
Having arrived on an island in the middle of the crocodile infested lake, Tee Hee leaves the rest of the meat there, as well as Bond. As the wooden bridge is dragged back by his henchman, Tee Hee sarcastically tells Bond that there are two ways of disabling a crocodile, ramming a pencil in the pressure hole behind a crocodile's eye or ripping out all his teeth with bare hands. Laughing gleefully, Tee Hee and the henchman then return to the building, leaving Bond to be eaten by the crocodiles. However, Bond escapes from the island by using the crocodile's backs as a makeshift bridge, jumping from back to back until reaching safety. To get revenge, Bond lures the crocodiles to the building ,creating a lline of flesh for the animal's to follow. He also sets fire to the entire building. Tee Hee and most of the scientists inside escape the inferno and he sends his henchmen after Bond, which results in a boat pursuit through the swamps of Louisiana. Eventually, Bond defeats all his pursuers and escapes.
Train fight with Bond
“ | Mr. Bond. It's good to see you again. | „ |
~ Tee Hee before his final struggle with Bond. |
During Bond's attack on San Monique, Tee Hee is not present. Eventually, Bond manages to kill Kananga and foil his evil plans. After order is restored, Bond travels with Solitaire by train, unaware that Tee Hee has smuggled himself onto the train as well to get revenge on Bond for killing his employer. At night, while Solitaire is in bed, he approaches her. She believes him to be Bond, much to his delight. When the real Bond enters the room, Tee Hee switches the bed back into the wall, trapping Solitaire inside. Bond and Tee Hee then engage in a fight, which Bond eventually wins by using pliers to cut a wire in Tee Hee's claw, which makes him unable to open it again. Tee Hee is now trapped, with his claw shut around the grip of the train's window. He is then killed when Bond lifts him and throws him out of the window, ripping off the metal arm in the process.