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"My roots and my heart are in France," he says as he lights a Monte Cristo. But though he holds citizenship in both Britain and France, he doesn't want their official honors and no longer has any interest in being Sir James. "I wouldn't accept that title today," he says, "nor any other decoration from a government, such as the French Legion of Honor. I want to be free. I guess that's what having money really means to me."
This is not a tale of rags to riches. The Goldschmidts, like their neighbors and relatives the Rothschilds, had been prosperous merchant bankers in Frankfurt since the 16th century. When Jimmy's grandfather Adolph came to London in 1895, he came as a millionaire and bought a mansion off Park Lane. Jimmy's father Frank, who changed his name to Goldsmith, went to Oxford, fought at Gallipoli, sat in Parliament, but found London's wartime anti-German emotions so painful that he moved to France, married a French wife and prospered in the hotel business. He lived in a world of yachts and limousines and casinos, and so did the son born in 1933, Jimmy. When he was six years old, according to a new biography by Geoffrey Wansell, Tycoon, a woman gave him a 1-franc coin. He put it in a slot machine and was inundated by a shower of coins.
By the time Jimmy went to Eton, he devoted much time and thought to playing the horses. At 16, he invested (pounds)10 in a three-horse parlay and collected (pounds)8,000. He decided that Eton was no longer worthy of his time. He bought himself a car and headed for Oxford, where although not enrolled as a student, he learned about chemin de fer and girls. When the subject of a career eventually came up, Jimmy served a brief stint in the Royal Artillery. He later went to Paris and joined his older brother Teddy in a tiny pharmaceutical business.
Jimmy at 20 was big and tall, 6 ft. 4 in., with bright blue eyes, and his pursuit of romance soon led him to Maria Isabella Patino, 18. She was the beautiful daughter of Bolivian Tin Millionaire Don Antenor Patino, who had brought her to Paris to meet a prospective husband. Instead, she met and fell in love with Jimmy Goldsmith -- not exactly the sort of son-in-law Patino had in mind. "Young man, we come from an old Catholic family," said Don Antenor when Jimmy went to ask his consent for the marriage.
"Perfect, we come from an old Jewish family," said Jimmy.
"It is not our habit to marry Jews," said Don Antenor.
"It is not our habit to marry Indians," said Jimmy.
Don Antenor shipped his daughter off to North Africa with a chaperone. Jimmy chartered a plane and pursued her. The Patino menage doubled back to Paris. Jimmy found her there and persuaded her to elope with him to Scotland, where no parental consent was needed after the age of 18. Don Antenor chased the fugitives to Edinburgh and hired detectives to find them. By now reporters were also in hot pursuit of the couple they continually referred to as the playboy and the heiress. The fugitives hid in various friends' houses for the < three weeks required to establish Scottish residence, then got married. Don Antenor went to court to have the marriage annulled, but lost. "They can expect no financial assistance from me," said Don Antenor as he disinherited his defiant daughter.