Francisco Scaramanga

Known as ‘Pistols’ or ‘The Man With The Golden Gun’, a notorious professional assassin with skills equal, if not superior, to 007 himself

An imposingly tall, well-dressed man of Spanish Catalan origin, Scaramanga is also known as Paco and possesses three nipples, according to his SIS file. While working as a teenage trick shot in a traveling circus, the 16 year old Paco witnesses the murder of his favourite performing elephant. He retaliates, killing the perpetrator, a police officer, with a single shot through the heart. Scaramanga goes on the run, making his way to the US, where he finds employment with criminal gang, the Spangled Mob.

By the time he crosses paths with 007, Scaramanga is a professional gunman living in Cuba, where his infamous gold-plated Colt. 45 Single Action army revolver earns him the alias ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’. Regularly employed by Fidel Castro’s secret police, Scaramanga also runs drugs into the US in partnership with the KGB and, at the time of meeting Bond, is involved in a plot to destabilise the Caribbean sugar industry. Having assassinated multiple SIS agents, Scaramanga becomes a target for MI6 and Bond is assigned the mission. Little does he know that a golden bullet engraved with 007 is waiting for him.

DID YOU KNOW?

Scaramanga was named after a fellow student of Ian Fleming’s at Eton College, named George Scaramanga, with whom he shared a lasting rivalry. The role of Scaramanga would go on to be played by Ian Fleming’s cousin, Christopher Lee, in the film adaptation of the book.