Jimmy Goldsmith
Sir James Goldsmith, tycoon, politician and cad, died on July 19th aged 64
CHAMPAGNE before dinner in the Hollywood Hills in the early 1990s. Two sleek, though now slightly elderly, corporate hawks stand by the window regretting that they have never swooped on General Motors together. The bosses at GM are “timeservers” and “pygmies”, the two startlingly tall men observe with English disdain; it would be doing a public service to toss them out. Of course, jobs would have to go, but there is a fortune waiting to be unlocked. Eventually, Gordon White (the master-mind of the America side of the Hanson takeover machine) admits the truth: “You just couldn't do it. Washington, the American establishment: there would be the biggest bloody outcry ever.” “But that would be the best bit,” smiles back Jimmy Goldsmith.
This article appeared in the Obituary section of the print edition under the headline “Jimmy Goldsmith”
Obituary July 26th 1997
From the July 26th 1997 edition
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