| James Bond character | |
 |
|
| Brad Whitaker | |
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Ex-military; Self-employed/General Koskov |
| Status | Deceased |
| Role | Villain |
| Portrayed by | Joe Don Baker |
Brad Whitaker is a fictional character in the James Bond film The Living Daylights. He was portrayed by American actor Joe Don Baker. Baker also played Jack Wade, Bond's CIA contact in GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies. Brad Whitaker was an international black market arms dealer from the U.S. He was fascinated by war, but his actual military career was a failure, so he turned to arms dealing to organize his own personal military force. Expelled from West Point for cheating, he spent a short stint as a mercenary in the Belgian Congo before working with various criminal organizations to help finance his first arms deals. He had a love of military history, and it is implied that he Wargamed various historical conflicts using automated miniature figures and effects. Whitaker joins forces with Soviet General Koskov to secure a large shipment of opium from the Snow Leopard Brotherhood in Afghanistan for $500,000,000 worth of diamonds that he had obtained from an arms deal with the Soviets. At the same time, they attempt to use Bond to eliminate the Soviet head of secret operations, General Pushkin, on the basis that he has instituted an ongoing operation called "Smert Shpionam" meaning "Death to Spies." Actually, it is their men, especially Koskov's henchman Necros, who are involved in killing British secret service agents. After thwarting Whitaker's plans, Bond hunts him down at his Tangier headquarters and kills him after a game of cat-and-mouse in his gaming room, with him using high-tech weapons (such as a light machine gun with an integral ballistic shield), and Bond using his Walther PPK. After Bond hides behind a bust of British commander Wellington, he sets his key-ring finder behind it. Whitaker gets right in front of it, and the key-ring finder explodes, triggered by Bond's wolf whistle. The explosion topples the bust and podium on top of Whitaker, crushing him.
