JAMES BOND
FACT FILES

There are those personnel whose contribution to the James Bond series is so important that the films would have been very different without their input, although their efforts were rarely formally acknowledged. One such contributor was retired US Air Force Officer Lt. Col. Charles Russhon, whose military connections and expertise added greatly to the authenticity of the sequences he was involved with.

Through his military connections, Russhon negotiated with the Turkish authorities for use of land in Istanbul during the making of From Russia With Love (1963). In 1964 he obtained the rights to use Fort Knox for Goldfinger. Although the filmmakers were not allowed to shoot inside the gold depository, permission was granted for the use of the United States Army base and exterior of the bullion depository, seen in the fly-past by Pussy Galore's Flying Circus in the film. A large-scale exterior set was replicated at Pinewood Studios by Production Designer Ken Adam for the scenes involving Goldfinger's attack on the depository, and interior scenes of the gold vault. Goldfinger is the only James Bond film where Charles Russhon received a formal screen credit. The producers also acknowledged his help with an on-screen in-joke (and a military promotion!) with his name appearing on a WELCOME TO FORT KNOX sign on the USA Armor School building, Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Charles Russhon was also a Technical Advisor on Thunderball (1965) and was able to supply the Bell Rocket Belt (flown in the pre-credit sequence by American pilot William P. ‘Bill’ Suitor), and the experimental rocket fuel used to destroy the Disco Volante at the end of the film. Russhon was also able to gain access to the US Navy's still experimental Skyhook rescue system, which supposedly lifted actors Sean Connery and Claudine Auger from the water at the end of the film. Charles Russhon remained close friends with actor Sean Connery until Russhon’s death in 1982. Russhon also appears in Air Force uniform in Thunderball in the background of the Whitehall briefing room set, where he can be seen playing what appears to be a game of Noughts and Crosses with Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell).

Russhon then worked on You Only Live Twice in 1966-67 where he was able to bring Gyrojet weapons into the UK for the sequences in Tiger Tanaka's (Tetsuro Tamba) ninja weapons workshop. His contribution to Live And Let Die in 1973 earned him the nickname ‘Mr. Fixit’ by James Bond star Roger Moore, when Russhon arranged to stop traffic in New York City for a lengthy car chase sequence on Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive. Although the car chase appears early in the film it was one of the last sequences captured for Live And Let Die during the final week of location shooting in New York in early March 1973.