Oddjob

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, making a cameo appearance in the mid-credits scene of Inspector Gadget (1999). 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 strong, 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 later we learn Oddjob practised taekwondo and hapkido in his native Korea but went onto 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 during the Second World War.