R.J. Dent (died 1962) was a British geology professor residing in Kingston, Jamaica at the time of the Cold War. Dent owned a practice in Kingston and secretly worked for Dr. Julius No, and he assayed samples of rocks from Crab Key given to him by MI6 station chief John Strangways. He claimed that the rocks were ordinary, while they were actually radioactive, proving that Dr. No owned a nuclear refinery on the island. Dent reported to Dr. No, who proceeded to have Strangways killed.
MI6 agent James Bond was later sent to Kingston to investigate Strangways' disappearance, and he confronted Dr. No about a receipt from Dent found in Strangways' office. When Bond came forth with evidence that Dent had contact with Strangways, Dent headed to warn Dr. No, who warned him that he would not tolerate any more failures. Dent failed to kill Bond by planting a black spider in his room, and Dent was later called to Bond's house by Bond, who suspected that Dent was in league with Dr. No.
Dent shot several times at a lump in Bond's bed with a silenced pillow, believing that Bond was resting there, but Bond instead pulled a gun on him from a chair next to the sliding door. Bond interrogated Dent after having him throw his gun onto a blanket on the floor; Dent slowly moved the blanket closer with his foot as Bond interrogated him. Dent attempted to shoot Bond before he could reveal who he was working for, but Bond instead shot him several times with his own silenced pistol when Dent's own pistol did not fire.