Sir James Michael Goldsmith (26 February 1933 β 18 July 1997) was an Anglo-French financier, tycoon and politician who was a member of the prominent Goldsmith family.
In 1994 he was elected to represent a French constituency as a Member of the European Parliament.
He founded the short-lived Eurosceptic Referendum Party in the United Kingdom, and was one of the key power-brokers in British political circles that initiated party political opposition to the country's membership of the European Union.
Goldsmith was allegedly the inspiration for the fictional character of the corporate raider "Sir Larry Wildman" in the 1987 American film Wall Street.Margaret Thatcher said of him: "Jimmy Goldsmith was one of the most powerful and dynamic personalities that this generation has seen.
He was enormously generous, and fiercely loyal to the causes he espoused".