Perhaps the most famous Rolls Royce ever to appear on a silver screen is the Phantom III, chassis 3BU168, which starred in James Bond's Goldfinger. Its role involves the major plot of the movie.
A very true and nice 1/43 model was produced by Universal Hobbies:
But before it became a movie star it was not a particularly special Phantom III. It was born on 8 March 1937, and the first owner ordered the chassis with both black bumpers and headlights. On 11th March 1937 it was delivered to coach builder Barker at Lillie Hall London, who built a sedanca de ville body, also finished in black with minimal bright work, even the external mirror was black. Only a white coach line painted on the bonnet panels. The owner, bachelor Urban Hussleston Rogers, the first Baron Fairhaven applied his own mascot, a dog.
On 25 June 1937 the car was delivered with reg. #CLF419, transferred from the owner's previous Phantom II.
In December 1963 the car appears for sale by London dealer Frank Dale & Stepsons. The car had lost its metal spare tire covers, the bonnet coach line and the unusual rear lights apparent in the picture above had been removed. It also has the Flying Lady mascot now.
The car got a complete make-over, including a repaint into its famous black and yellow livery. In 1964 the car was involved in the making of the famous movie Goldfinger. The cast included Sean Connery as 007, Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore, Gert Fröbe as the villain Auric Goldfinger and Harold Sakate as Goldfinger's evil assistant Oddjob (at the wheel of the model car). The registration # changed to AU 1, representing the chemical element for gold: Au.
Film director Guy Hamilton ensured that the car had a starring role as Goldfinger was able to smuggle large amounts of gold from England to Switzerland by replacing the aluminum body panels of the car with ones made out of gold. Coming to Switzerland the gold body panels were dismantled and melted and so the game went on. By the way, had the body panels been of solid gold in reality, the car could not have moved, even with its powerful V12 engine.
After its movie stardom #BU168 was sold to the US where it changed hands several times. It was on display, due to its stardom, in the Museum of Beaulieu England in 2013-2014.