Professor RJ Dent is a fictional character in the James Bond film Dr No, portrayed by Anthony Dawson.

Anthony Dawson as Prof Dent.

Dent is a geologist with a private practice in Kingston; he also secretly works for Dr Julius No. He is first seen playing cards with John Strangways and other officials. When investigating Strangways’ death, Bond initially suspects Dent, when he finds the rocks Dent is studying are radioactive.

Bond then questions Dent about the rocks in his office after encountering his young secretary played by Bettina Le Beau. Dent reports his fears about Bond to Dr No, who orders him to eliminate Bond with a deadly spider. Dent puts it into Bond’s bed, but he escapes. When Bond meets Miss Taro, Dent sneaks up to the house, but not before Taro speaks about the plot.

Bond waits for Dent, putting pillows under his covers as a decoy. Dent empties his gun into the bed, leaving him defenceless with Bond, having quipped “That’s a Smith and Wesson and you’ve had your six,” executes him with a shot to the chest and a follow-up bullet in the back.

This scene was controversial because it showed the hero of the film killing a man in cold blood, and even though Ian Fleming had conceived the character as one who is authorised to commit such actions, in none of his novels is Bond shown acting in this manner. According to James Bond: The Legacy, the filmmakers needed a scene to illustrate the “licensed to kill” concept and in fact had originally filmed the scene to show Bond firing several more bullets into Dent, but ultimately removed all but the first shot (some televised broadcasts such as those by the American ABC network delete the second bullet to the back). It is sometimes stated that an alternative version was shot with Dent firing first and Bond returning fire, but this is a myth.

See also:

• Bond henchmen