Bond at 50: Henchmen

 Below are my five favourite Henchmen and Henchwomen from the Bond films.

5. Red Grant (Robert Shaw, From Russia With Love)
 From Russia With Love was blessed with two great SPECTRE villains in Rosa Klebb and Donald Grant. The reason why he is such a good henchman, is that he was originally a homicidal maniac, recruited and trained up by SPECTRE with the mission of killing Bond who had previously assassinated Dr. No. Grant really is the benchmark for all future henchman, not only in the Bond films, but also many other action movies. He is shown to be in peak physical condition, and is a quite ruthless and clinical assassin. Played by the brilliant Robert Shaw, he also has the right balance of charisma and guile that make him a formidable enemy and worthy adversary of Bond.





4. Mayday (Grace Jones, A View To A Kill)
 It was a great piece of casting by the producers in getting the eccentric pop star Grace Jones, to play the unhinged sidekick to Max Zorin (Christopher Walken). She is well built and quite terrifying when dispatching Bond's allies, and therefore quite convincing in the role of Mayday. Her campness certainly works to her advantage in this the last of the Moore movies in the mid-80's. She may have been a disaster had she appeared in the Connery or Craig era. Despite her strengths she is also quite vulnerable as she vies for her bosses attention and affection, and you feel for her her when she's abandoned by Zorin. This leads her to becoming one of the more endearing characters in the series as she turns to James Bond for solace.



3. Oddjob (Harold Sakata, Goldfinger)
 The first of the Henchmen to come with a gimmick, in the shape of his bowler hat. Sakata is unnerving as the short but stocky sidekick to Goldfinger, and looks like he could beat anyone in a fight. In fact his demise is only down to Bond's quick thinking rather than a physical confrontation. He's also handy with a silencer and is one of the sidekicks that doubles up well as a servant, even in this role he seems perfectly efficient. He is also very quiet, choosing instead to smile wryly, which adds to his menacing and deadly demeanour.





2. Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen, Goldeneye)
 Goldeneye is probably the best film on the female front, with a great ally to Bond in Natalya and a superb enemy in Xenia Onatopp. An employee of the Janus syndicate, he specialist move was seducing targets and then strangling them to death with her thighs. She takes orgasmic pleasure in her killing, not only with her thighs, but seemingly with her gun too. Without doubt the sexiest of the Henchwomen and has great chemistry with Bond, and also has some good dialogue and one-liners in her limited screen time. I did find her character to be similar in style to the character of Naomi (Caroline Munro) in The Spy Who Loved Me, but thankfully Xenia has more screen time.





1. Jaws (Richard Kiel, The Spy Who Loved Me & Moonraker)
 The only henchman to return, and in my opinion the best. He seemed to have all the appropriate attributes for being a Bond henchman, including playing both the opposing sides. He's trademark is his metal teeth, that can seemingly bite through anything, and uses them to bite and kill his victims in the jugular. At nearly 7 feet tall, it also gives him a great strength advantage over his targets, as well as the ability to survive almost anything. His status is as Best Henchman is somewhat undermined towards the end of Moonraker, after he begins to reform his character after meeting the equally socially awkward Dolly. Still his previous escapades and his intimidating figure and attributes, make him my favourite Henchman from the film series.