# Memorable goons/henchmen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094 "2012-10-18T03:26:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/1 "2012-10-18T03:26:37Z")
I was just rewatching Batman (the Burton/Keaton/Nicholson one), and I was reminded that there are several of the Joker’s goons/henchmen who have no dialog, no name, but are quite memorable. To wit: the ninja guy with the swords, and the big black guy with classes from the bell tower. That got me thinking about other such nameless characters who stand out… one whose face we never even see but who I’ve always felt sorry for is the Tie Fighter pilot from Return of the Jedi who chases Wedge and the Millenium Falcon all the way through the Death Star 2, almost all the way to the other side, and then explodes. That guy was an AMAZING pilot, and he deserved better than to go out like that. What goons or henchmen made an impression on you? (For purposes of this thread, any character who has a name, nontrivial dialog, or meaningful emotional interaction with the hero doesn’t count… so Karl from Die Hard, while clearly a henchmen, is hardly a faceless one, but the Asian henchman played by Al “Genghis Khan” Leong, or the guy who looks like Huey Lewis, would.) ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/2 "2012-10-18T03:49:34Z")
Bring out the gimp. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/3 "2012-10-18T03:50:10Z")
The swordsman who gets shot from _Raiders of the Lost Ark_. His scene is just a few seconds long, but memorable. There’s a scene in one of Raymond E. Feist’s Riftwar novels that always stuck in my head. These human characters are going through a lair of these nasty lizard-man types, when an egg hatches. The baby lizard crawls out, sees the humans - and its eyes instantly fill with hate and it attacks, despite being unable to do more than chew on their boots. It underlined just how deeply hardwired the lizardmen were for hostility towards everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/4 "2012-10-18T03:59:04Z")
Oddjob What do I win? ---
**Author:** ![Private\_Bin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c0e974/32.png) [@Private\_Bin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Private_Bin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/5 "2012-10-18T04:21:36Z")
It’s all there! Black and white! Clear as crystal! So you get NOTHING! You lose! Good day, sir! ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/6 "2012-10-18T04:27:15Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The swordsman who gets shot from _Raiders of the Lost Ark_. His scene is just a few seconds long, but memorable. Also, the big guy Indy fights who winds up getting chopped up by the propeller. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/7 "2012-10-18T04:27:18Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Oddjob > What do I win? Six demerits for ignoring the OP. Oddjob wasn’t nameless. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/8 "2012-10-18T04:40:47Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Six demerits for ignoring the OP. Oddjob wasn’t nameless. Nameless Bond goon: [“I didn’t know there was a pool down there.”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EQDa1n7Tqw) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/9 "2012-10-18T05:06:29Z")
> [@Private\_Bin](#): > > It’s all there! Black and white! Clear as crystal! So you get NOTHING! You lose! Good day, sir! Golf clap ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/10 "2012-10-18T05:11:33Z")
The unnamed goons from the opening scene of Once Upon a Time in the West. Best unnamed goons ever, with ~13 minutes of screen time lovingly lavished on them. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/11 "2012-10-18T05:15:09Z")
[The masked henchman/goon in Lord Farquaad’s dungeon in the first _Shrek_ movie.](http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101115181906/shrek/images/b/be/SHREK-Thelonious1.jpg#shrek%20executioner%20852x480) ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/12 "2012-10-18T05:22:12Z")
And of course we get their names later, but you gotta love [these guys](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKSnRkARktk). ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/13 "2012-10-18T05:34:09Z")
She isn’t nameless I don’t think but the goon played by Grace Jones in A View To A Kill was pretty memorable, I enjoyed her disbelief that her boss and lover a neo-nazi betrayed her along with Bond. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/14 "2012-10-18T05:35:17Z")
The minion that gets turned into a glow stick in **Despicable Me** , as well as the minion who unexpectedly turns his fellow minion into a glow stick. I laughed so hard I almost choked. He doesn’t fit with the OP’s qualifications because he has a name, but one of my favorite henchmen is Ben Foster in [3:10 To Yuma](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381849/). He was truly fierce and frightening. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Doom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Dr\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Doom)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/15 "2012-10-18T17:28:18Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > the Asian henchman played by Al “Genghis Khan” Leong, That’s the one! One of my favourite parts of the movie was when he sheepishly stole the chocolate bar, making sure that he wasn’t going to get caught 😃 ---
**Author:** ![edwards\_beard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@edwards\_beard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edwards_beard)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/16 "2012-10-18T17:45:48Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I was just rewatching Batman (the Burton/Keaton/Nicholson one), and I was reminded that there are several of the Joker’s goons/henchmen who have no dialog, no name, but are quite memorable. To wit: the ninja guy with the swords, and the big black guy with classes from the bell tower. > > That got me thinking about other such nameless characters who stand out… one whose face we never even see but who I’ve always felt sorry for is the Tie Fighter pilot from Return of the Jedi who chases Wedge and the Millenium Falcon all the way through the Death Star 2, almost all the way to the other side, and then explodes. That guy was an AMAZING pilot, and he deserved better than to go out like that. My favorite Tie Fighter Pilot example is in Empire Strikes Back…the one that had his Tie Fighter collide with an asteroid and he is ejected into space in flames. > [@Dr\_Doom](#): > > That’s the one! > > One of my favourite parts of the movie was when he sheepishly stole the chocolate bar, making sure that he wasn’t going to get caught 😃 That makes me think of another Die Hard example…although it is with nameless cops instead of nameless goons. When the SWAT team is storming the building and McClane is screaming “You macho assholes” there is the one guy that gets his hand stuck on a pricker bush and recoils away from it like it was poison. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/17 "2012-10-18T17:59:45Z")
Ben Welden. Appeared in numerous episodes of “The Adventures Of Superman” as an old-fashioned “underworld” henchman. Always anonymous, IF memory serves. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/18 "2012-10-18T18:08:23Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > The swordsman who gets shot from _Raiders of the Lost Ark_. His scene is just a few seconds long, but memorable. > [@Tangent](#): > > Also, the big guy Indy fights who winds up getting chopped up by the propeller. You guys know that was the same actor, right? He was also the henchman who gets chopped up in the stone grinder in **Temple of Doom**. My choice? The guy from **Never Say Never Again** who beats the crap out of Bond with his metal belt cord thingy, then Bond beats him by throwing his own urine sample in his face. Remember him? FYI, it was the same aforementioned actor. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/19 "2012-10-18T19:37:50Z")
I like the last one of the Crazy 88 still standing in Kill Bill. Discretion is the better part of valor… ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094/20 "2012-10-18T19:43:54Z")
Mr. Joshua in Lethal Weapon Vizzini’s men in Princess Bride The massive bald airplane mechanic in Raiders of the Lost Ark Steve Buscemi [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memorable-goons-henchmen/638094.md?page=2)