Villainous Gold Tooth

A jerk with a tooth of gold.

Due to its malleability and resistance to corrosion, gold has been used in dentistry for centuries. The advancement of modern ceramics, however, has made golden prosthetic teeth or filling stand out, making it a very useful visual signifier.

Characters with golden teeth tend to be villains at least most of the time, perhaps because it can also be an indicator of greed, ostentation, and Conspicuous Consumption. It is also a common feature of Pirates in fiction. Bonus points whenever it is also the given nickname of the character. In Real Life it was often associated with The New Russia in Europe, since gold was commonly used in Soviet dentistry, and with gangsters.

At times it might be accompanied by an Audible Gleam. It can be a realistic justification for a Twinkle Smile.

A Sub-Trope of Gold Makes Everything Shiny and Made O' Gold.

Compare Purple Is Powerful. For another trope about characters with gold teeth, which can sometimes overlap with this trope, see Gold Tooth of Wealth.

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Examples:

Animation

• Captain Pronin: Putana, the Femme Fatale sent to kill Pronin in Captain Pronin - Major Pronin's Grandson, has a gold tooth. Her means of forcing his hand include kidnapping his wife, and she shoots the camera a golden Twinkle Smile at the points where she thinks she has the advantage.
• Gaju Bhai: Invoked, as one of the bad guys Gaju faces in the movies he stars in is a gorilla with a golden tooth.
• The recurring glasses-wearing thief in Lamput, in his first appearance in "Rifle", has a gold tooth. He doesn't have one later on.

Anime and Manga

• [C] – Control: Takedazaki is a shady Information Broker, operating from the shadows as he trades secrets for cash. He has a whole mouth of gold teeth. Otherwise, he is one of the least ostentatious Entrepreneurs.
• Fairy Tail: Once Crawford Theme, chairman of the Magic Council, reveals his true colors as a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and secret informant to Tartaros, he starts sporting gold-toothed dentures that he loves to show off.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: The sadistic "Gold-Toothed Doctor" is a human in cahoots with the homunculi. Somehow the resulting twinkle of his gold only makes his constant Slasher Smile more disturbing.

Comic Books

• Lanfeust: There's a slave trader with a gold tooth.
• Monica's Gang: In "An Adventure in Time", the gang travels to different time periods to retrieve canisters containing essences of the four classical elements, though each one is being guarded by a villain that must be defeated. Guarding the water cannister is Goldtooth, a degenerate treasure hunter who seeks to harvest the gold at the bottom of the rivers and uses the water canister to cause a drought in the Amazon rainforest.
• Motu Patlu: John the Don is the series' Big Bad who always tries to harm Motu and Patlu. He has a few golden teeth in his mouth.
• The Punisher MAX:
  • Maginty, one of the four crime lords meant to inherit a share of Pops Nesbitt's fortune, has a gold tooth in his mouth, alongside several crooked teeth. He has, by far, the most intimidating reputation of all the Irish gangsters in New York.
  • Barracuda has a row of four gold teeth in his upper gums and a row of three in his lower gums, which collectively have the words "FUCK YOU" engraved on them. He's a sadistic mercenary hired to eliminate the Punisher.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) Clutch the Opossum is an expert Chao trainer who abuses them if they lose their races. His left canine tooth is gold-plated. Prior to retirement, he was a powerful gangster and Arms Dealer; a run-in with the heroes inspires him to get back to his unsavory ways.

Fan Works

• Earth-27:
  • Tobias Whale is The Don of the Metropolis branch of The 100, one of DC's largest criminal gangs. He has a mouth full of gold teeth.
  • Brick, the leader of the Hard Knocks gang and enemy of Team Green Arrow, has one gold tooth amongst his otherwise white teeth.
• The Flash Sentry Chronicles: Gold Hoof, described as having a golden tooth in his mouth, uses fear to prevent witnesses from coming forward about his illegal activities as he terrorizes a town at the edge of Equestria.
• From The Ashes Fallout Mass Effect: Dr. Goeth makes no effort to hide that he's a horrible, twisted human being. For the Evulz is the driving reason behind his actions. His gold tooth is prominently visible.
• The Mountain and the Wolf: One bit character is known as Goldtooth, who has shady dealings with the Wolf's forces. His attempts to be in control of the situation last exactly as long as you'd expect from someone being interrogated by Tormund Giantsbane and Sandor Clegane, and he gets a broken hand for his trouble.
• Only the Results: Valentino had a gold tooth...until Sallos overheard him trying to blackmail Stolas into handing over a grimoire to use for abducting human virgins to sell as sex slaves, or alternatively, his daughter. Sallos promptly ripped out said tooth as part of the ensuing punishment.
• Total Shuffled Island Series: Alejandro's label is the Arch Villain. Taking Heather's canon role of gold-toothed Entitled Bastard, he becomes the Big Bad of Island. He gets a gold tooth to replace the tooth he loses when Chef accidentally punches him in the face.

Films — Animated

• An American Tail:
  • In the first film, Warren T. Rat, who sells poor little children like Fievel into sweatshops in exchange for their salary and runs a protection racket on the mice, has a gold tooth.
  • In An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, gang leader Cat R. Waul's most competent minion, T.R. Chula, reveals his gold tooth with every Slasher Smile.
• The Chipmunk Adventure: Jamal's henchman Cuomo has a gold tooth that's constantly accompanied by an Audible Gleam. The sinister implication is subverted after it's revealed that Jamal is not villainous, but actually an INTERPOL agent.
• Coco: Héctor's gold tooth adds to his initial image as a shifty Con Man. However, it's eventually made clear that he isn't as shifty as he looks.

Films — Live Action

• Big Bully: Roscoe, David's bully, sports a gold tooth that gives off a twinkle.
• Black Panther (2018): Erik "Killmonger" Stevens is a Visionary Villain who envisions Wakanda as the sole superpower in the world after spearheading a worldwide uprising of black people. Two of his bottom teeth are gold-capped, indicating his showy and flashy nature.
• Dirty Laundry: The pimp is only known as Goldtooth due to, well... He commits the mistake of abusing his girls right in front of Frank Castle, and ends up burned alive by one of them.
• The Feather Fairy: Though Frau Hippe, Death, is usually an old crone, she can take the form of a beautiful young maiden whose only tell is her crooked golden teeth. Protagonist Jakob is Enemies with Death after she kills his family in an avalanche and tangles with her repeatedly as he grows up.
• The Harder They Fall (2021): Buck pistol-whips the gold teeth out of Escoe's mouth as revenge for his attempts to take control of Redwood for a quick profit.
• Home Alone: Harry's gold tooth produces a rare live-action Twinkle Smile. When he takes a paint can to the face while attempting to burgle Kevin's home, it knocks the gold tooth out of his mouth. (It eventually reappears as a Brick Joke; it's one of the few things Kevin misses when tidying up the house before his family get back).
• John Wick: Chapter 4: Killa is a German crime boss working for the High Table. His mouth is full of gold teeth. After killing him, John brings back a tooth to prove he is dead.
• The Magnificent Seven (1960): Calvera is the enigmatic leader of the bandits terrorizing the village. He has a couple of gold teeth.
• The Phantom (1996): Morgan, one of the thieves assisting Big Bad Quill at the beginning, has a gold tooth.
• Quantum of Solace: Carlos, the Colonel of the Bolivian National Police Corps, is a Dirty Cop who has a gold tooth in his upper jaw.
• The Quick and the Dead. Eugene Dred has several gold teeth that he shows every time he leers at the protagonist. After he rapes an underage girl The Lady challenges him to a duel on the spot, and after he's killed a street vender, whom we saw earlier hawking gold teeth, gleefully starts to yank Dred's teeth out with pliers.
• Small Soldiers: Nick Nitro, the Mad Bomber of the villainous Commando Elite, has a gold tooth.
• Suicide Squad (2016): Captain Boomerang's left maxillary central incisor has been replaced by a golden one. He's a nasty, rude, crude and overall quite Jerkassish bank robber.
• The World Is Not Enough: Bullion is Valentin Zukovsky's traitorous gold-toothed bodyguard. Though not a part of the action himself, he manages to trigger two assassination attempts against his boss and Bond.

Literature

• Adrian Mole: Discussed. When Adrian enquires about suing Barry Kent, he notices that the solicitor he visits sports a gold tooth. He remembers advice his grandmother gave him not to trust anyone with a gold tooth and promptly leaves.
• The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi: Discussed. When Salima tries to link Amina's gold tooth to the stories of a pirate queen with a mouthful of golden fangs, Amina mocks her fixation on a very common dental procedure. (Amina is that pirate, but the stories have grown with the retelling.)
• The Man with the Red Tattoo: Murderous Bōsōzoku gang leader Ichihara has a gold tooth, which is displayed prominently when he smiles at the captured Bond.
• A Song of Ice and Fire:
  • The Faceless Man who alternately calls himself Jaqen H'ghar and the Alchemist has a gold tooth. The Guild of the Faceless Men being a league of assassins, he's at best a Morally Ambiguous Mentor to Arya in A Clash Of Kings.
  • Daario Naharis, a sellsword and Dany's Hot Consort who sports a gold tooth, is a gleefully vicious killer who openly mocks and insults nearly everyone he meets. Dany loves him because he's much kinder to her than her husband, but it's heavily implied that he only wants her for her power and her body.
  • Eyrie gaoler Mord gets a bunch of gold teeth, presumably using the money Tyrion gave him. He's a cruel man who serves as a Torture Technician under Littlefinger.
• Tales of the Ketty Jay. Grayther Crake has a Gold Tooth of Wealth that he uses as a dark magic Hypno Trinket. If not a villain he's certainly an Anti-Hero, like everyone else on the Ketty Jay.

Live-Action TV

• Big Mouth (2022): The big, deaf Tattooed Crook Gong Jihoon brings in to keep an eye on Park Changho and prevent him from escaping by beating him has golden teeth, fitting his creepy look and evil role.
• Doctor Who episode The Giggle reveals that the Toymaker challenged the Master to a game after the events of Power of the Doctor, and the Master lost. As his "reward", the Toymaker turned the Master into a gold tooth. This tooth is picked up at the end of The Giggle and its yet to be revealed the next iteration of the Master, or who picked up the tooth.
• Community: In "Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps," the story Pierce tells involves a racist reimagining of Troy and Abed as gangbanging home invaders. This version of Troy has a gold tooth.
• Good Omens (2019): Unlike his Faux Affably Evil boss Gabriel, Sandalphon is just plainly unpleasant. His gold tooth has a tiny cross set into it.
• Justified: Daryl has a gold tooth. He's The Chessmaster head of the Crowe crime family and an abuser who beats his sister Wendy to a pulp, manipulates her for his ends, and blames her for Kendal's incarceration when it was he himself who forced Kendal to make a false confession.
• The Tick (2016): The Terror is the world's most infamous supervillain and the murderer of the Flag Five. He sports an entire set of gold teeth after he's shown to have faked his own death.
• The Walking Dead (2010): Beta has a few gold teeth. He's a Dragon Ascendant after Alpha's death and a Hero Killer on multiple occasions.

Toys

• LEGO: One particular LEGO minifigure face is a sneering grin with a single gold tooth on the upper jaw. It was introduced in 2003's World City theme and is very commonly used for crooks and robbers in LEGO City, such as Handsome Hank. This face is also used for several pirates in the 2009 reboot of LEGO Pirates and the evil Dr. Inferno's henchmen in LEGO Agents; the latter theme also features Gold Tooth, a villain who exaggerates this trope because all of his teeth are gold.
• Monster High: Bartleby Farnum is a swindler by trade who plans to exploit the ghouls. He has two gold teeth.

Video Games

• Brawl Stars: Belle sports a gold tooth and is the leader of the Goldarm Gang, a band of thieves specialized in robbing banks all throughout The Wild West.
• Battleborn: Pendles, a cold-blooded (literally, as he's a reptile) Professional Killer has a gold tooth in his lower jaw. Like most adolescents of his race do, he left home to experience galactic cultures, and enjoyed murdering those cultures so much that he never went back. Upon finding out that people would actually pay him for his hobby, he became a freelance assassin for anyone with even the smallest of grievances.
• Crash: On the Run!: Mr. Crumb's design in this game has a gold tooth. He was introduced in Crash 99X as the main villain of the game, an evil ghost fiercely guarding lost treasure.
• Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls: As a part of his gangster image, the Warriors of Hope's Evil Mentor Kurokuma has a whole mouthful of gold teeth.
• God of War: Heimdall is a smug Jerkass who antagonizes literally everyone he meets. There's not a single person alive who can tolerate him for more than a single word. His teeth are solid gold, which is both accurate to the little description he has in the original myths and also reflects his haughty, bragging nature.
• Henry Stickmin Series: Sir Wilford IV sports a gold tooth, befitting a criminal leader. One of the strongest leaders in Toppat history, he defeated and overthrew Billy G. to take his place.
• MadWorld: The Black Baron's presumably gold (the game is in black and white) teeth spell out "DEATHWATCH." Though he's presented as a silly stereotypical pimp, he turns out to be the reigning champion of Death Watch and a white man using blackout tattoos as Blackface minstrelsy.
• Mega Man Star Force: Rich Dotcom is a greedy, shady businessman and Boisterous Bruiser who's honestly convinced that money can do anything and goes berserk when that's not the case. He has a gold fang that juts up from his lower lip.
• Shank: The Butcher used to have a gold tooth, but it's knocked out when defeated in his confrontation with Shank and Falcone. He's the one who killed Shank's pregnant girlfriend Eva.
• Warcraft: With his new model, you can see that Gallywix's right canine is gold. He's Hated by All due to his cruelty, decadent lifestyle, pettiness, and greed that is excessive even by goblins' standards. Doubles as a Gold Tooth of Wealth because he's clawed his way to become the wealthiest goblin on the isle of Kezan.

Web Animation

• Epithet Erased: One of Con Artist Ramsey's teeth is gold, reflecting both his shifty nature and his ability to turn things into gold and back.
• Helluva Boss: Striker's upper left canine fang is coated in solid gold, and it sticks out of his mouth very prominently in left-facing closed-mouth shots, adding to his already quite intimidating appearance. He's a sadistic Manipulative Bastard who kills without remorse and whose only desire is to be paid.
• Homestar Runner: The Cheat is an antagonistic narcissist who often assists Strong Bad in his schemes, though he's ultimately a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. When his teeth are shown, one is gold.
• The Stockholms: Willy the getaway driver has a gold tooth that turns out to be a spare bullet. He's spent 19 months waiting in the car for Jasper to finish robbing the bank and is a Greater-Scope Villain that's an even worse version of Jasper.

Webcomics

• Escape from Abject Reality: Snake Oil is the comic's main antagonist. He has a gold fang that sticks out of his mouth when closed.
• Lovesyck: For Carver, an assassin of of Living Legend proportions, her entire top row of front teeth is silver and the bottom row gold.
• Weak Hero: Corrupt Corporate Executive Yongbae Jo is specifically drawn with an open mouth in his introduction so the readers can see his golden tooth. Tactics he's willing to stoop to for the success of his company include sending out hooligans to threaten other businesses or hiring goons to rough up the kids who stand in his way.

Web Videos

• Role With Me: Asmo is a bully and hustler, the most amoral of the heroes. He has a golden fang that appears when he smiles.
• TFS at the Table: Ford Money is a brutish man that creeps out the film crew who are using his film lot. He has a notable gold tooth in his profile picture. He has a pact with The Viewer, sacrificing people to it in exchange for the power of a Hexblade.

Western Animation

• Beware the Batman: Tobias Whale, a prominent mob boss who controls the gangsters of Gotham City, has golden teeth.
• Bob Morane: Orgonetz, the bloodthirsty half of Smog's top agent Evil Duo, has a whole mouthful of gold teeth.
• Detentionaire: Chopper McNeal, the leader of the 15th Grader Gang of Bullies, has a gold tooth in his top row of teeth.
• The Garfield Show: Mama Meany is the greedy, crooked owner of a pizza place and a recurring antagonist. He has a golden tooth.
• In Garfield on the Town, the leader of the Claws, Ali Cat, has a gold tooth. His gang intends to hunt down and harm Garfield.
• Jimmy Two-Shoes: Peep, a pickpocket Con Artist who alongside his father Rudolpho lives to swindle the people of Miseryville out of their money, has a gold tooth that apparently helps him whistle.
• Juro Que Vi: In "The Iara", all of the mine owner's teeth are made of gold, highlighting his obsession with it from his first appearance. He's a vicious and greedy slaveowner who rules the miners with an iron fist and almost drowns Pedro after he tried to escape slavery.
• The Legend of Vox Machina: Goran Vedmire noticeably has a few gold teeth, implying he lost them in a fight and replaced them once he became a wealthy lord under the Briarwoods. A former mercenary, he has a knack for torture and works as a brutal enforcer/executioner.
• My Gym Partner's a Monkey: In "A Very Special Boy," one of the lions in The Pride Posse shows off his gold tooth. Adam having being put on an "endangered species" list, the Posse is one of the bully groups he antagonizes without fear of repercussions.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The shifty-looking pony that Pinkie Pie tries to buy from in "The Gift of the Maud Pie" has a gold tooth. In addition to the jewelry and coins cutie mark, it easily characterizes him as a greedy character.
• The Raccoons: Cyril Sneer is a Corrupt Corporate Executive who's an enemy to the raccoons, at least in the early seasons. He has two gold upper teeth, one on each side of his mouth.
• Samurai Jack: DJ Stylbator hypnotizes the children of a town Jack passes through into raiding villages. Not only does he have a gold tooth, it can shoot lasers.
• Total Drama: Heather's design for World Tour includes a gold tooth, which is a lot more visible when she opens her mouth. The "villainous" part gets dropped after she develops into an Anti-Hero, and the gold tooth disappears when she returns in All-Stars.

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