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Dr. 'Julius No' is a fictional character in the James Bond film and novel ''Dr. No''. He was the first James Bond villain in the film series. No was played by Joseph Wiseman.

Contents

Film biography

Film henchmen

Novel biography

Novel henchmen

Other appearances

Trivia

See also

Film biography

Dr. No is a brilliant scientist with an implied Napoleon complex (see mad scientist), a self-described "unwanted child of a German missionary and a Chinese girl of a good family". He later "became treasurer of the most powerful criminal society in China", in this case, the Tongs. He then "escaped to America with $10,000,000" of Tong gold bullion. He specialized in atomic energy, which cost him both of his hands, which were replaced with crude bionic ones that were made out of either iron or steel. No's metal hands apparently had great strength (he could crush a stone figurine into powder), but were seriously lacking in manual dexterity.
He offered his skills and expertise to the Americans and Soviets, but was rejected. To get revenge, No joined the villainous organization SPECTRE and relocated to his island in Crab Key, Jamaica.
No is first known when he speaks to Professor Dent, mad at his failure to kill Bond. He gives
Dent a venomous spider.
No is not seen until the end of the movie where Bond and Honey Ryder have dinner with No
and appears before that when he answers Bond's question about his minnows that look like
whales. During dinner, Bond is persistent about No's plan, No gets angry and demands that
Honey leave the room. No leaves dinner and has Bond put in a cell. No is seen later mastering
his plan. In confusion with Bond in an anti-radioactive suit, he demands Bond to stand by instructions, Bond causes trouble and turns a vat of water into boiling, radioactive water.
Dr. No runs and hits Bond with his pincers, provoking Bond into a fight. Bond wins when he leaves No in the vat of water; unable to climb out (his metal hands can't grab the wet structure), No drowns.

Film henchmen

:''For his henchmen in the film, see List of James Bond henchmen in Dr. No

Novel biography

Although the film and novel are similar in plot, the backgrounds for Julius No carry certain differences. Born in Peking, he was the son of a German Methodist missionary and a Chinese girl, but was raised by his Aunt. When older, he went to Shanghai, where he became involved with the Tongs, a Chinese crime syndicate. Later he was smuggled to the United States and settled in New York City, where he became a clerk and eventually Treasurer for a Tong in America, called the "Hip-Sings."
In the late 1920s, a mob war broke out in New York, forcing the police to crack down on them. No stole a million dollars in gold from the Tongs and disappeared. But the Tongs tracked him down and tortured him to find the location of the gold. When No did not tell them, the Tongs cut off his hands, shot him through the heart and left him for dead. No survived, due to a condition called dextrocardia, in which his heart was on the right side of the body.
No spent a long time in hospital, then enrolled in medical school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is unclear if he completed his studies, but he adopted the title of Doctor and changed his name (his birth name is unknown) to Julius No, symbolic of his rejection of his father, whose given name was Julius. As in the film, No fitted himself with metal manual prostheses, but the book describes them as simple pincers (apparently similar to those of Tee-Hee in ''Live and Let Die''), and judging by the lack of descriptive detail, they presumably lack the articulation of human hands. With the million dollars from the Tong, he purchased rare stamps in order to preserve his money against inflation; he later purchased the island of Crab Key, off the coast of Jamaica, where he re-started a defunct guano business as a cover for his proposed criminal operations. He employs Jamaican and Cuban labourers on good wages for the guano works, brutally supervised by Chinese-Negroes ('Chigroes,' a portmanteau of Chinese & Negroes) from Jamaica. No one who comes to the island is allowed to leave.
No, with aid from the Soviets, sabotaged nearby American missile tests by jamming their signals and making them land and explode on a different target than that planned. This forced the Americans to spend time and money redesigning their missiles. He also recovered missiles from the ocean and turned them over to the Russians.
Bond did not actually learn of No's devious plot until after infiltrating Crab Key with Quarrel, where he was captured. With the help of Honeychile Rider, who also trespassed to find exclusive shells, Bond killed Dr. No by burying him under a heap of guano whilst operating a crane.

Novel henchmen

★ Miss Taro

★ Other various "Chigroes" including 3 who pose as blind men

Other appearances

No made several appearances in the James Bond Junior cartoon. His skin, however, was rendered bright green - perhaps a callback to his seeming death by radioactivity, but also not an uncommon treatment for Asian villains to receive in animation at the time; this fate was shared by Ming the Merciless in ''Defenders of the Earth'' and the Mandarin in ''Iron Man''.
No also appeared in the video game '', despite his death in the book and film, alongside fellow Bond enemies Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Auric Goldfinger, Francisco Scaramanga, and Xenia Onatopp. In the game, Xenia Onatopp works for Dr. No and he seems to possess a considerable army of well-equipped henchmen, as well as numerous tanks and helicopter gunships that resemble V-22 Ospreys. He also seems to have soldiers placed on countless rooftops and buildings in Hong Kong. He was electrocuted by his own reactor in a fight with the rogue 00 agent, "Goldeneye". In the game, he was voiced by Carlos Alazraqui.
He is also a multiplayer character in the video game From Russia With Love.

Trivia

According to Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton site, No's mother was an unnamed agent of Fu Manchu.

See also

★ ''Dr. No''

★ List of James Bond villains