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

Canadian actor Joseph Wiseman as Dr Julis No.

Novel biography: Although the film and novel are similar in plot, the backgrounds for Julius No are almost entirely different. Born in Peking, he is the son of a German Methodist missionary and a Chinese girl, but was raised by his aunt. When older, he goes to Shanghai, where he becomes involved with the Tongs, a Chinese crime syndicate. Later he is trafficked to the United States and settled in New York City, where he becomes a clerk and eventually Treasurer for a Tong in America, called the “Hip-Sings.”

In the late 1920s, a mob war breaks out in New York, forcing the police to crack down on them. No steals a million dollars in gold from the Tong and disappears. But the Tongs track him down and torture him to find the location of the gold. When No does not tell them, the Tongs cut off his hands, shoot him through the heart and leave him for dead. No, who has a condition called dextrocardia in which his heart is on the right side of the body, survives, however.

No spends a long time in hospital, then enrols in medical school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is unclear if he completes his studies, but he adopts the title of Doctor and changes his name (his birth name is unknown) to Julius No, symbolic of his rejection of his father, whose given name was Julius. With the million dollars, he purchases rare stamps in order to preserve his money against inflation; he later purchases the island of Crab Key, off the coast of Jamaica, where he restarts 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 (‘Chingroes’) from Jamaica. No one who comes to the island is allowed to leave.

No, with aid from the Soviets, sabotages nearby American missile tests by jamming their signals and making them land and explode on a different target than that planned. This forces the Americans to spend time and money redesigning their missiles. He also recovers missiles from the ocean and turns them over to the Soviets.

Bond does not actually learn of No’s devious plot until after infiltrating Crab Key with Quarrel, where he is captured. With the help of Honeychile Rider, who also trespasses to find exclusive shells, Bond kills Dr No by burying him under a heap of guano while operating a crane.

Film biography: Dr No is a brilliant 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 specialises 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. Dr No’s metal hands apparently have great strength (he could crush a stone figurine into powder), but are seriously lacking in manual dexterity. He also has an implied Napoleon complex.

He offers his skills and expertise to the Americans and Soviets, but is rejected. To get revenge, No joins the villainous organisation SPECTRE and relocates to his island in Crab Key, Jamaica.

Dr No, in an effort to cause trouble for the Americans, uses his secret underground island base as a headquarters from which he would sabotage US missiles by disabling their guidance systems and destroying them. Dr No accomplishes this with a powerful radio transmission, powered by an atomic energy reactor within his base.

No is killed after a hand-to-hand fight with Bond on a descending platform in the heart of No’s nuclear reactor. Bond manages to knock No down and escape the lift before it plunges into the reactor’s cooling vat. No, on the other hand, is unable to grip the framework of the lift due to his crude metal hands and thus sinks into the boiling, radioactive water to his death.

See also:

• Bond villains