The most famous of all James Bond cars which first appeared in this Bond film, the 1964 silver birch Aston Martin DB5, was never driven by Roger Moore's James Bond in a Bond movie. The DB5 was made famous by Sean Connery in this film and then in Thunderball with later models appearing in some subsequent Bond pictures. However, Moore, who played James Bond seven times, has only ever been seen on screen with this make once and that was in The Cannonball Run where he self-parodies his James Bond persona.
The movie was the fastest grossing picture in film history when it was released and even entered the Guiness Book of World Records to mark this.
The original choice for the spy car of the film was not the Aston Martin DB5 but an E-Type Jaguar, which cost half as much. The E-Type Jaguar was a car model actually driven by production designer Ken Adam. Jaguar declined and the producers went to Aston Martin's David Brown. He supplied them two production prototypes of the newly released Aston Martin DB5. One was used for straight driving and the other was for adding various gadgets and features by Ken Adam. A Jaguar-based spy car is seen in Die Another Day.
The part of Jill Masterson was initially offered to Shirley Anne Field, who turned it down.
The producers wanted Orson Welles to play Auric Goldfinger, but Welles was too expensive. Then Gert Fröbe began arguing over his salary (he wanted 10% from the movie's earnings), prompting the producers to wonder whether Welles would have been cheaper after all.
The recreation of the Fort Knox repository at Pinewood Studios was incredibly accurate considering no one involved in the film had been allowed inside the real location for security reasons. The set looked so real that a 24-hour guard was placed on the Fort Knox set at Pinewood Studios so that pilferers would not steal the gold bar props. A letter to the production from the Fort Knox Controller congratulated Ken Adam and his team on the recreation. Auric Goldfinger's 3D Model Map used for his Operation Grandslam is now housed as a permanent exhibition at the real Fort Knox.
The role of Oddjob was the first screen role for weightlifter and professional wrestler Harold Sakata. It was such a success that it started a second career in films, television and commercials. For some of these appearances, he would be billed as "Harold 'Oddjob' Sakata". He also later appeared in The Poppy Is Also a Flower which was based on an Ian Fleming story and directed by Bond director Terence Young.
The sign on Ft. Knox bears the name "Gen. Russhon". Charles Russhon was the technical advisor for the film.
The song "Goldfinger", rewritten as "Gold Label", was featured in a long-running series of cigarette commercials.
The title song is the first of three title songs sung by Shirley Bassey for Bond movies, the others being title songs for Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker. The "Goldfinger" song was the first James Bond title song to crack the Billboard Top 10, peaking at #8 in February 1965.
The vault door used in the Fort Knox scene is now located in Bank Of The West in Los Altos, California.
The villain's first name, Auric, is related to the Latin word for gold, 'aurum') and the periodic table code AU for the same. The license plate on Goldfinger's 12 cylinder 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III Sedance de Ville reads AU 1 for the same reason
This is the only Sean Connery-era Bond film without the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld or his organization SPECTRE (SPecial Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). In retroactive continuity, Goldfinger is linked to SPECTRE in the video-game GoldenEye: Rogue Agent.
This is the only EON Sean Connery Bond film that doesn't end with Bond at sea.
This was the second most popular Bond movie with paying audiences, racking up 130 million ticket sales. The next Bond film, Thunderball, surpassed it in popularity, with 140 million paid admissions. The success of Goldfinger and Thunderball, propelled Sean Connery to the top of Quigley Publications' annual Top Ten Money Making Stars poll in 1965, the only British male star to be #1.
This won the first Academy Award for a James Bond movie. It was for Best Sound Effects and it was won by Norman Wanstall. Thunderball won a Special Visual Effects Oscar the following year and producer Albert R. Broccoli was awarded the Irving Thalberg Award in 1982. Ironically, the gilded Oscar statuette and the gilded girl in the film have such an uncanny resemblance making Goldfinger fittingly the first Bond movie to receive an Oscar.
Tilly Masterson's Ford Mustang was supposedly the first appearance by a Mustang in a major motion picture. The Mustang was introduced in April of 1964 and Goldfinger was released in December. Ford supplied many cars to the film including the CIA agents' Thunderbird, all of Goldfinger's goons cars, and the Lincoln Continental that is crushed.
Toy car manufacturer Corgi manufactured a special miniature Aston Martin DB 5 car for Prince Charles who was aged 15-16 at the time. Corgi then produced Aston Martin James Bond toy cars for decades after the release of the movie Goldfinger. A 30th Anniversary Edition Goldfinger Aston Martin DB 5 toy car was released in 1994 by Corgi.
Vehicles featured included the most famous of all the James Bond cars, the silver birch Aston Martin DB5 which would return for Thunderball; Tilly Masterson's white 1964 Ford Mustang convertible, the first appearance of this make in a movie; a yellow and black 1937 Rolls Royce Phantom III Sedance de Ville, Goldfinger's 12 cylinder made-of-gold car weighing 7000 lb; a white Hiller UH-12E4 helicopter; black Mercedes-Benz 180, 190 and 220 models which pursue 007; a Ford Country Squire station wagon; Ford military pickup (After leaving the 'canyon' it becomes a Dodge WC-51, but reverts to a pickup as it drives up to the gate); a US Army Dodge WC-54 ambulance; a Lockheed JetStar C-140 plane piloted by Pussy Galore & Sydney; a Lockheed US VC-140B plane seen at the end of the movie; Pussy Galore's Flying Circus being made up of all Piper PA-28 Cherokee planes; a blue 1964 Lincoln Continental convertible sedan and a 1964 Ford Falcon Ranchero delivery vehicle, both used by Oddjob; another Lincoln Continental and a white 1964 Ford Thunderbird ridden by Felix Leiter and his CIA partner Johnny in Kentucky. (Note: When bond refers to the Rolls-Royce as a 'Phantom Three-Thirty-Seven' he was probably referring to it by its type and year, a Phantom 3, '37 (1937). There is no Phantom '337' model, so this type/year reference can be saf
When Shirley Bassey recorded the theme song, she was singing as the opening credits were running on a screen in front of her, so that she could match the vocals. When she hit her final high note, the titles kept running, and she was forced to hold the note, until she almost passed out.