10 Stunts That Went Wrong In James Bond Films

The character of Oddjob is arguably the greatest henchman to grace our screens, a silent beast who enjoyed killing people with his steel brimmed hat. This character was the antithesis of the gentle soul playing the role, Harold Sakata who was a Japanese sumo wrestler also known for playing the pantomime villain, and despite speaking minimal English. Sakata's kind and gentle nature however proved to be his downfall, with severe burns resulting from a stunt gone wrong.

The incident occurred during the film's iconic final scene within the walls of Fort Knox. During his final fight scene with Connery's 007, Sakata was instructed by Director Guy Hamilton to grab hold of his steel brimmed hat when it became lodged in between the cage bars holding the gold.

As Sakata grabbed hold of his hat, a massive explosion set off designed to show the electrocution of his character. As documented in The Making of Goldfinger documentary, the electrocution scene went awry, causing significant burns to Sakata as the electrocution actually occurred.

Incredibly the incident would have not happened, or at least wouldn't have caused so much damage to Sakata, if he wasn't such a nice guy. Despite feeling the pain of the electrocution running through him, Sakata refused to let go of the hat that was burning him. The reason for this? Because the director Guy Hamilton hadn't called for the end of the take!

Of course Hamilton was staggered that Sakata was so 'obedient', but one has to wonder how there could be such poor planning for such an important stunt. I guess they did things differently in the 60's!