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Auric Goldfinger is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel Goldfinger . His first name, Auric, is an adjective meaning of gold . Ian Fleming chose the name to commemorate the architect Ernő Goldfinger who had built his home in Hampstead next door to Fleming's; Fleming disliked Goldfinger's style of architecture and destruction of Victorian terraces and decided to name a memorable villain after him. According to a 1965 Forbes magazine article and The New York Times , the Goldfinger persona was based on gold mining magnate, Charles W. Engelhard, Jr. [1] In 2003, the American Film Institute declared Auric Goldfinger the 49th greatest villain in the past 100 years of film. In a poll on IMDb, Auric Goldfinger was voted the most sinister James Bond villain, beating out in order Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Dr. No, Max Zorin, and Emilio Largo. [2] Auric Goldfinger was played by Gert Fröbe. Goldfinger was banned in Israel after it was revealed that Fröbe had been a member of the Nazi party during the Second World War. The ban, however, was lifted many years later when a Jewish family publicly thanked Fröbe for protecting them from persecution during World War II. Gert Fröbe, who did not speak English well, was dubbed in the film by Michael Collins, an English actor. Of his role as Goldfinger, Fröbe later remarked: "I am a big man, and I have a laugh to match my size. The ridiculous thing is that since I played Goldfinger in the James Bond film there are some people who still insist on seeing me as a cold, ruthless villain - a man without laughs."
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