Oddjob
Encyclopedia : O : OD : ODD : Oddjob
- This article is about the James Bond henchman. For the graphic novel, see Oddjob (graphic novel).
Contents
Biography
The film
Oddjob acts as Goldfinger's personal chauffeur, bodyguard and golf caddy in the film. He is extremely strong and durable, demonstrating his strength in a number of scenes, including one where he crushes a golf ball with his bare hand, and later is struck with a thrown gold brick in the chest with scarcely a flinch. He is expert at unarmed combat, but also uses a silenced pistol on a mobster. He wears what appears to be a flat-topped top hat lined with a metal razor disk in the rim, using it as a lethal flying disc of sorts (this is a bowler hat in the novel, see below). Physically, Oddjob is completely invincible to Bond's hand-to-hand combat tactics, even when Bond uses a wooden object as a club. The only time Oddjob shows anything resembling fear or wariness in the film is when Bond is about the use the hat against him. Bond misses him with the throw, causing his hat to go into metal bars in the Fort Knox vault. Oddjob is then outmaneuvered when, as he reaches to retrieve his hat, Bond uses a severed live electrical cable to electrify the bars, causing a deadly current to run from the bars through the metal hat to Oddjob, killing him.The novel
Oddjob, so named by Goldfinger, is Korean-born, and, much like in the film, is extremely strong, proven in one sequence where he breaks the railing of a staircase with his hand and the mantle of a fireplace with his foot. Expert at unarmed combat, Oddjob is also expert with a bow and arrow, and with his metal derby hat. He is a ruthless killer, but also acts as Goldfinger's personal guard, driver, and manservant (though not his golf caddy). He has a taste for cats as food, apparently acquired in Korea when food was in short supply (Bond frames Goldfinger's yellow cat for destruction of surveillance film, and as punishment, sees the cat given to Oddjob for dinner). Oddjob has a cleft palate and thus cannot speak reasonably intelligible English, although he appears to understand it. He is killed when Bond uses a knife to shatter the window next to his seat on an airplane, which depressurises the plane and sucks Oddjob out of the window, a fate transferred to Auric Goldfinger in the film version.Trivia
- The ordinary round-topped bowler hat was originally made with a hardened rounded top so that gamekeepers on horseback were protected from treebranches. This style hat was therefore informally known in England as the "iron hat." In Oddjob's case, that term is somewhat closer to being literal. Interestingly, the essential rounded top of the bowler hat or derby hat is missing in the hat Oddjob wears in the film, which actually appears to be a short top hat. It is clearly identified as a bowler hat in the novel.
- Oddjob's steel-rimmed hat was auctioned in New York on June 17, 2006 for $33,600 by Los Angeles-based Julien's Auctions. The hat, from the estate of Harold Sakata, was purchased by Anthony Pugliese III of Fort Lauderdale, a collector of Bond memorabilia.
Other appearances
Oddjob has appeared in a number of James Bond games as a playable character that the player can choose for multiplayer. He was notable in Goldeneye 007 for being the shortest playable character (and thus hardest to hit) and became one of the more popular selections by players. In Nightfire, Oddjob can use his hat as a weapon (as in the film) for an instant kill.For the 2004 video game, , he was resurrected for the game's story mode and is killed by being tossed over a rail into a pit with a seismic bomb at the bottom by the title character, GoldenEye.
Oddjob also appeared in the animated series James Bond Jr. with a top hat, sunglasses and hip-hop style clothes.
Oddjob-inspired characters
- In the film , Oddjob is parodied by a character called Random Task, who throws his shoe as a weapon.
- Another parody is in the game Fur Fighters, where a hat-throwing bear called Oddfelt appears in the last level.
- Leonardo Leonardo's publicist Plug is a parody of Oddjob in .
- Oddjob's trademark hat-throwing technique can also be seen in Toy Story 2, in which Mr.Potato-Head throws his own bowler hat to prevent two doors from closing.
- In the Mortal Kombat video game series, a recurring character named Kung Lao has a similar blade-rimmed hat that can be thrown at opponents.
- In the video game Alone in the Dark 2, an undead pirate nicknamed Black Hat has a blade-rimmed hat that he can throw at the protagonist Edward Carnby.
- Spider-Man has fought in a one-page Hostess advertisement a supervillain called "Demolition Derby" who throws his derby hat that bounces and cuts Spider-Man's webbing [link].
- Also in one episode of the Warner Bros cartoon show Duck Dodgers, Daffy Duck throws a hat to save himself during a mission and later says that he had learned it from someone called "Odd Ball", in which they cut to a scene where Oddjob angrily says "Odd Ball?!!" something that may prove that who Daffy meant is not a parody but the same Oddjob as in the movie/novel.
See also
Official James Bond film characters
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