Johann van der Smut

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Austin Powers character
Johann van der Smut
Nickname	Goldmember
Gender	Male
Nationality	Netherlands
Role	Metallurgist
Filmography
First appearance	Austin Powers In Goldmember
Film count	1
Portrayed by	Mike Myers

Johann van der Smut (a.k.a. "Goldmember") is a fictional villain in the third film of the Austin Powers trilogy, Austin Powers in Goldmember. He is played by Mike Myers. The character was partially inspired by the James Bond villain Auric Goldfinger.

Contents 1 Background

[edit] Background

Dutch-born van der Smut lost his genitals in an unfortunate smelting (or "schmelting", as he pronounces it) accident in the 1970s and has since been known as "Goldmember". He replaced his lost equipment with a gold key that activates the Preparation H tractor beam. He teamed up with Dr. Evil in 2002 to kill Austin Powers and conquer the Earth.

In the end, though, Goldmember is defeated as he attempts to activate the tractor beam with the key (still attached to himself). Austin and Dr. Evil, now working together, reverse the current in the system and electrocute him. Goldmember falls to the deck of the submarine, unconscious or dead, but is not seen in any subsequent shots -- probably another parody of villains being defeated and never heard of again.

Goldmember has a nasty habit of peeling pieces of his own skin off and eating them. He can also dislocate his legs with relative ease (presumably due to his lack of genitals). He runs his own nightclub in the 70's (Studio 69) and is the driving force behind Preparation H, the tractor beam that sucks things to Earth. Often, he talks to his armpits in a ritual-like fashion, usually whispering proper sources of certain phrases for copyright purposes. For example, after saying "And that's the way, uh-huh uh-huh, I like it," quietly comments to the side "KC and the Sunshine Band." His peculiar habits even succeed in creeping out Dr Evil.

Myers' imitation of the Dutch accent was not entirely accurate, though it did attempt to invoke many of the stereotypical mannerisms and intonations of Dutch people speaking English. To some people (definitely Dutch people) Goldmember sounded more like a German. His most notable mispronunciation comes when he tries to say "father", but pronounces it as "fahza", which leads Dr. Evil to believe he is saying "farger" (which is strange given that Dr. Evil claims he was born in Brugge, where Dutch is spoken.) In the real world the Dutch word for father (vader) is pronounced as "/vɑdɛɾ/". Most Dutch-speaking people tend to pronounce it the same way in English. People speaking with a Dutch accent usually turn the th-into either a d or t, rather than into a z-sound. Goldmember also says "shiza" (shy-za) to express displeasure. No such word exists in Dutch, in German however, the word Scheiße is used and sounds similarly.

The spelling of his first name Johann with two N's is actually German, Johan (with one N) is a common Dutch name.

Goldfinger's heavy Dutch accent being misunderstood by many of the other characters may be a reference to Gert Frobe himself having to be dubbed over in Goldfinger due to his own heavy accent.

At the beginning of the movie, Dr. Evil describes him as a "Dutch metallurgical hedonist."

In the film within the film, he is played by actor John Travolta.