W.G. Howe was the fictional Californian director of Oil and Mines at San Francisco City Hall. A minor character, he appeared in the 1985 James Bond film, A View to a Kill, and was portrayed by Brazilian-American actor, Daniel Benzali.
Biography[]
Based at San Francisco City Hall, Division of Oil and Mines, W.G. Howe unwittingly aids psychotic industrialist Max Zorin in his plot to destroy Silicon Valley. Whilst investigating Zorin's Californian oilfields, James Bond pays a visit to Howe under the guise of James Stock, a reporter from the London Financial Times. After an uneventful interview, Bond notices one of Howe's geologists, Stacey Sutton and recognises her from a party he had attended previously at Zorin's estate in France. It was later revealed that Sutton lost her family business, Sutton Oil, to Zorin, and took a job as a geologist in order to make ends meet. Howe was her boss, and the work relationship apparently was a poor one, with Sutton getting terminated for asking too many questions about Zorin's seawater pumping.
Shortly afterwards, 007 and Stacey return to City Hall and unearth vital records regarding the industrialist's Californian properties. However, they are cornered by Zorin, who plans to torch the building, then by Howe, who was working late and is shocked by what is going on in his office. Zorin has the unsuspecting Howe call the San Francisco Police Department and inform them of a break-in, then reveals that he will frame Stacey and Bond, who murdered Howe out of spite for Stacey's termination. A perplexed Howe wonders about his own murder and remarks that in order for that to story to work he would need to be, to which Zorin jokingly interrupts "...dead!" as he shoots Howe with Bond's Walther PPK, then orders his underlings to engage in arson to Howe's office. Bond and Sutton manage to escape the inferno, however the SFPD discover 007's sidearm alongside Howe's corpse and attempt to take him into custody.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ (1985). A View to a Kill [Blu Ray]. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Event occurs at 31:30. "The cheque is dated May 1985"