Cec Linder was the only actor from the cast who was actually in Florida for the Miami sequences. Sean Connery was in the midst of shooting of Alfred Hitchcock's Marnie and was unable to be on the Goldfinger set at the time.
Garry Marshall: the successful future producer/director as one of the American gangsters gathered to hear about "Project Grand Slam."
Bob Simmons: The series regular stuntman is the actor appearing as James Bond in the opening gun barrel sequence. The same footage was used in Dr. No and From Russia with Love.
Terence Young, the director of the first two James Bond movies, worked on the film during the very early stages of pre-production, including early drafts of the screenplay. However, an agreement could not be reached regarding the terms of his contract, and he left the production.
Jack Lord was approached to return as CIA agent Felix Leiter, but he declined. He had played him in Dr. No. The role was recast, beginning a succession of different actors in the role (only David Hedison and Jeffrey Wright would play the role more than once). In Goldfinger, Austin Willis was originally cast as Felix Leiter and Cec Linder as Simmons. However, they were asked to swap parts shortly before production.
The Beatles and James Bond have long had a strange relationship. In Goldfinger, Sean Connery's Bond says that serving Dom Perignon above 38 degrees Fahrenheit would be "almost as bad as listening to the Beatles without ear muffs". Paul McCartney doesn't seem to have been overly offended by this remark, as his later band Wings contributed the theme tune to Live and Let Die. Barbara Bach, who starred in The Spy Who Loved Me ended up marrying Ringo Starr, the Beatles' drummer.
Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli wanted to cast Gert Fröbe after seeing him in a German thriller, Es geschah am hellichten Tag. In that film, Frobe played a psychopathic serial killer.
Albert R. Broccoli once named this film along with The Spy Who Loved Me and From Russia with Love as his three favorite James Bond movies, according to an interview with the Hollywood Reporter's Robert Osborne.
Ian Fleming got the name "Goldfinger" from his alleged dislike of Hungarian modernist architect Erno Goldfinger. Among other things Erno Goldfinger designed London's Trellick Tower, built in 1968. When Ernö Goldfinger sought legal advice in regard to Ian Fleming using his surname in the "Goldfinger" novel, Fleming allegedly considered re-naming the character "Goldprick". The parody Austin Powers in Goldmember revives the idea.
Goldfinger was adapted as a comic strip and published in the English "Daily Express" newspaper from 3 October 1960 to 1 April 1961. It was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky. It has had world-wide syndication and was reprinted in 2004. The villains Goldfinger and Oddjob also feature in a story in Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentleman comic book.
Goldfinger was intended to be lighter in tone and less political than the first two Bond films. It was released in the UK and USA the same year.
Alf Joint: The stuntman played Capungo, the henchman in the opening sequence due to the original actor not being able to do the role at the last minute. This was because he was a cat-burglar and had just been arrested. Joint was burnt on the leg by a smoldering coil whilst filming this pre-credits sequence.
According to the film's CD Soundtrack sleeve notes, the movie's soundtrack album was a No. #1 hit in the USA charting on 12 December 1964 and staying at No. #1 for three weeks. The title song "Goldfinger" single sung by Shirley Bassey charted in the UK on 15 October 1964 and went to the No. #21 rank. The single entered the charts in the USA on 30 January 1965 and peaked at the No. #8 position.
After their golf match, 007 follows Goldfinger to the airport. The map on the scanner clearly shows Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England.
Although many of the locations in the film are American, Sean Connery never set foot in America during filming. All scenes where he's apparently in America were shot at Pinewood Studios, London.
As with many car shots in movies, the sun visors have been removed from Bond's Aston Martin, but the mounting holes were not covered and they are visible on the car in shots above the windscreen.
As with the first two James Bond movies, creator and author Ian Fleming visited the set during April 1964. He visited D Stage at Pinewood Studios where they were filming the UK set of the Fontainebleu Hotel pool scene. Sadly, he died a little less than a month before the film's release on 12th August 1964.
Aston Martin were initially reluctant to part with two of their cars for the production. The producers had to pay for the Aston Martin, but after the success of the film, both at the box office and for the company, they never had to spend money on a car again.
At one point in the film, Bond states that "drinking Dom Perignon '53 above the temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit is as bad as listening to the Beatles without earmuffs!" Ironically, Shirley Bassey's title theme song was produced by The Beatles producer, George Martin. Additionally, Paul McCartney would later record the theme song for another Bond film, Live and Let Die.
Author Ian Fleming borrowed the notion of someone being suffocated by being covered in gold paint from the horror film Bedlam. Shirley Eaton underwent two hours of make-up application which involved being gild painted to become a gold painted corpse. A doctor was on set at all times in fear of possible skin suffocation, and her stomach left bare for the same reason. Her shots lasted less than five minutes in the finished film and the filming of them was shot quickly, wrapped in a morning's work. Then she was scrubbed down by the wardrobe mistress and the make-up girl, and sweated off the remaining gold in a number of Turkish baths. After the film was released, rumors circulated that she had actually died on set, owing to the misconception that the gold paint caused asphyxiation.