Auric Goldfinger
The James Bond series is liberally peopled with out of this world characters, although the lead character itself is based on real people known by the author, Ian Fleming. The antagonist in the novel Goldfinger, and in the film of the same name starring Sean Connery, is also based on a real person, and named for another.
According to a possibly apocryphal story, Fleming disliked the architectural style of Erno Goldfinger so much that he opted to commemorate the name by assigning it to a loathsome villain in one of his novels. It is more likely that when the architect built his home near Fleming’s that the author simply made note of the name. The character was not based on the architect however.
Goldfinger was based on Charles W. Engelhard Jr. Engelhard was an American gold and metals titan, who also owned several thoroughbred race horses. Engelhard had homes in the United States, England, and South Africa, where his businesses played a leading role in developing the nation’s economy. Engelhard inherited multiple companies from his German American father, and eventually combined many of them into the Engelhard Corporation.
Ian Fleming met Engelhard in 1949, through Engelhard’s use of a London bank which had been established by the author’s grandfather. Engelhard was using the bank in an attempt to get around some of South Africa’s export rules involving bullion. Fleming was fascinated with the gold magnate’s lifestyle and wealth, and used much of what he observed when he created Auric Goldfinger in the 1959 novel.
Engelhard was reportedly thrilled to be the source of the character, especially after it was portrayed by Gert Frobe in the motion picture (although Goldfinger’s speech was dubbed by another actor). Engelhard began calling the stewardesses on his private plane Pussy Galore, and often mentioned his relationship to the character. Fleming died before the film version was released, but confirmed that Engelhard had been the basis of the character in the novel.