Oddjob

For other uses, see Odd job.

Oddjob
James Bond character
Harold Sakata as Oddjob in Goldfinger (1964).
First appearance	Goldfinger (novel, 1959)
Last appearance	007 Legends (video game, 2012)
Created by	Ian Fleming
Portrayed by	Harold Sakata
Voiced by	Jeff Bennett ( James Bond Jr. )
In-universe information
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Auric Goldfinger
Nationality	Korean
Classification	Henchman

Oddjob (often written as "Odd Job") is a fictional character in the espionage novels and films featuring James Bond. He is a henchman to the villain Auric Goldfinger in the 1959 James Bond novel Goldfinger and its 1964 film adaptation. In the film adaptation of Goldfinger, he was played by the Japanese-American actor and professional wrestler Harold Sakata. Oddjob, who also appears in the James Bond animated series and in several video games, is one of the most popular characters in the Bond series.

Appearances

Novel

Oddjob's real name is unknown. Goldfinger names him to describe his duties to his employer. A Korean, like all of Goldfinger's staff, he is extremely powerful, as shown in one sequence where he breaks the thick oak railing of a staircase with a knife-hand strikes (colloquially known as 'karate chops') and shatters a mantel with his foot. When Bond expresses surprise at these feats, Goldfinger explains that Oddjob trains extensively to toughen the striking surfaces of his hands and feet, which have developed a tough callus, significantly increasing his striking power.

Oddjob is described as being a "squat" man with "arms like thighs", black teeth, and a "sickly zoo-smell". In contrast with the film, where he is depicted as a man of average height, the novel describes his breaking of a mantelpiece seven feet off the ground and six inches above his head, placing his height at 6 ft 6 in (198 cm). In an early edition, Oddjob is described as having a black belt in the Japanese martial art of karate; in later editions it is learned that Oddjob practised taekwondo and hapkido in his native Korea but went on to earn his black belt in karate in Japan. The earlier novel tells of his hatred of being mistaken for Japanese, mainly due to Korean anger at the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910–1945).

Oddjob's signature weapon is a razor-edged bowler hat, which he wears at all times and can throw with deadly accuracy. He is also a skilled archer, able to fire an arrow through a ring as it is held aloft. Due to a cleft palate, he has a speech defect that renders his speech unintelligible to everyone except Goldfinger. In addition to killing people who might cause trouble for Goldfinger, Oddjob functions as his guard, chauffeur, and manservant (though not his golf caddy, as depicted in the film).

He is killed when Bond uses a knife to shatter the window next to his seat on an aircraft, which depressurizes the plane and blows Oddjob out of the window, a fate transferred to Auric Goldfinger in the film version.

Film

At the beginning of Goldfinger, Oddjob is seen only as a silhouette against a wall as he knocks Bond unconscious at the Fontainebleau Hotel, after which he and/or Goldfinger kills Bond girl Jill Masterson, with whom Bond had spent the night, through "skin suffocation" by painting her entire body with gold paint. ^{[n 1] [1]}

When Bond meets Goldfinger for a round of golf, Oddjob is seen in full for the first time. Goldfinger describes him as "an admirable manservant but mute". He only has four lines of 'dialogue' throughout the film: in his first line, upon pretending to have found Goldfinger's missing golf ball, he exclaims, "Aha!". The second time, after killing Tilly Masterson, he instructs his men to dispose of her body by merely pointing at them and saying, "Ah! Ah!". The third time, he says "Ah!" to order Bond to put on a gas mask before entering Fort Knox. The fourth time, as Bond electrocutes him in Fort Knox, he yells a final long, loud "Arrgh!".

Oddjob acts as Goldfinger's personal chauffeur, bodyguard, and golf caddy. He wears a bowler hat with a sharpened steel rim, using it as a lethal weapon in the style of a chakram (an Indian throwing weapon) or a flying guillotine. It is powerful and capable of cutting through steel and decapitating a stone statue. ^[2] He uses it to kill Tilly Masterson by breaking her neck.

Physically, Oddjob is extremely strong and resilient; he crushes a golf ball with one hand, and during the climactic fight scene with Bond, he is struck in the chest by a thrown gold bar and struck in the head with a wooden object used as a club. He barely flinches after both these attacks. However, he is never mentioned to be a karate expert. He is also fanatically loyal to Goldfinger and his plot, as he is willing to die in the nuclear explosion in Fort Knox rather than allow the bomb's disarmament. ^{[n 2]}

Oddjob's demeanor remains constant throughout the film. He smiles broadly whenever he encounters Bond, even during their fight scene. The only time he shows anything resembling fear or wariness is when Bond attempts to use Oddjob's hat against him. Oddjob dodges the hat, causing it to get stuck between a pair of metal bars. When he retrieves his hat and tries to free it, Bond grabs a sparking wire severed by the hat earlier and thrusts the open end onto the bars. The electric current transfers to the bars and then to the metal in the hat's rim, which electrocutes Oddjob to death. When asked what happened to him, Bond replies, "he blew a fuse". ^[3]

Other appearances

Oddjob appears in the animated series James Bond Jr. with a miniature top hat (in place of the customary bowler hat), sunglasses, and hip-hop style clothes (not only does he wear purple instead of black, but he wears more casual attire as opposed to his live-action counterpart's dress suit), revealing that the electric shock did not kill him, but knocked him unconscious. The Americans arrest him before he escapes again in the series. When not wearing his hat, his hair is now more flat-top. Like his movie counterpart, he rarely speaks.

In the video game James Bond 007 , Oddjob appears as a henchman for the main villain, General Golgov. Bond encounters Oddjob at his hotel room in Marrakesh. The two fight and Bond is defeated and left stranded in a desert. Later on, Bond trails Oddjob to Tibet, only to be captured. Bond escapes confinement and obtains a shield to protect him from Oddjob's hats, which he uses to deflect back at him. In this game, Oddjob speaks.

In the video game GoldenEye: Rogue Agent , Oddjob is a henchman of Goldfinger and initially a companion of GoldenEye. He is killed when GoldenEye tosses him over a rail into a pit inside the Hoover Dam after he attacks GoldenEye.

Oddjob appears in the James Bond video games GoldenEye 007 and 007: Nightfire as a playable character for use in multiplayer modes. His short stature in Goldeneye made him infamously hard to hit and often banned as a House rule. In Nightfire, he can use his hat as a unique throwing weapon that returns after 30 seconds. ^[4] Oddjob is also a playable multiplayer character in the 2010 remake game GoldenEye 007 .

In Dynamite Entertainment's ongoing comic book title James Bond 007 , a new iteration of Oddjob is featured who is envisioned as a South Korean secret agent and a successor to another Oddjob (with Harold Sakata's likeness), initially acting as a rival spy to Bond in a mutual assignment. His given name is John Lee.

Oddjob's hat

The prop used in Goldfinger by Oddjob was made by British hat makers, Lock & Co. ^[5] The hat was then adapted by inserting a chakram into the brim. ^[6] John Stears was responsible for making the hat fly.

After Goldfinger, the hat came into the possession of the James Bond Fan Club. In 1998, the hat was auctioned at Christie's in a sale of James Bond memorabilia. The hat sold for £62,000. ^[7] In 2002, the hat was lent out for an exhibition at the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television in Bradford, commemorating the 40th anniversary of the release of Dr. No . ^[8] The hat was then auctioned again in 2006, when the final price was $36,000. ^[9]

Replicas of the hat are sought after by collectors and replicas have been used as centrepieces for some exhibitions. ^[10] In 2008, one replica joined the Bond exhibition at the National Motor Museum. ^[11]

The television show MythBusters tested out the capabilities of Oddjob's hat, testing whether or not it would have been able to decapitate a stone statue. It failed to do so, and the Mythbusters ultimately labeled it 'Busted'. ^[12]

Oddjob's lethal hat was ranked tenth in a 2008 20th Century Fox poll for the most popular movie weapon, which surveyed approximately 2,000 films fans. ^[13]

Legacy

Oddjob's popularity has resulted in numerous popular culture references and homages. In the Mortal Kombat video game franchise, recurring character Kung Lao's throwable hat was inspired by Oddjob. ^[14]

Footnotes

1. Realistically speaking, having one's whole body coated with paint would not cause suffocation.
2. After being locked in the vault with Goldfinger's henchman Kisch, Oddjob kills Kisch to prevent him from disarming the bomb before engaging Bond.

References

1. Metin Tolan – Geschüttelt, nicht gerührt, Piper Verlag
2. "Oddjob's killer bowler at Beaulieu". This is Hampshire. 23 January 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
3. Guy Hamilton (Director) (18 September 1964). Goldfinger (Film). United Kingdom: Eon Productions.
4. Eurocom (18 November 2002). 007: Nightfire (PlayStation 2) (1 ed.). Electronic Arts. Level/area: Multiplayer.
5. "Bei Londons ältestem Hutmacher kaufen Madonna, Prinz Charles und 007-Bei Londons ältestem Hutmacher kaufen Madonna, Prinz Charles und 007". Glaubeaktuell (in German). Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
6. Hosted by Mike Loades and Chad Houseknecht (26 October 2008). "Chakram". Weapon Masters. Series 1.
7. "Oddjob's hat bowls them over". BBC News. 17 September 1998. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
8. "Bond show licensed to thrill". BBC News. 10 March 2002. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
9. "James Bond News :: MI6 :: Oddjob's deadly hat auctioned for $36,000". Mi6-hq.com. Retrieved 2013-10-06.
10. "Oddjob's killer bowler at Beaulieu". Daily Echo. 23 January 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
11. "James Bond News :: MI6 :: Oddjob's killer bowler hat joins Bond exhibition at Beaulieu". Mi6-hq.com. Retrieved 2013-10-06.
12. "James Bond, Part 2". MythBusters. Season 6. Episode 4. February 6, 2008. Discovery Channel.
13. Sophie Borland (2008-01-21). "Lightsabre wins the battle of movie weapons". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2008-01-26.
14. Goldman, Michael; Aaron, Richard E. (1995). "Ed Boon & John Tobias Interview". Official MK3 Kollector's Book. Electronic Gaming Monthly.