All 7 Actors Who Played Blofeld in the James Bond Movies, Ranked

Among many other reasons, the James Bond franchise has become one of the most significant ongoing sagas in cinematic history as a result of its great villains. The series has featured memorable antagonists like Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) and Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen), but there isn’t another Bond villain who is quite as iconic as Ernst Stavro Blofeld. As the head of SPECTRE, Blofeld is responsible for leading the villainous organization against Bond as it attempts to disrupt the institution of MI6.

Blofeld is essentially the Emperor Palpatine of the Bond franchise, as he is an overarching villain who makes evil plans within the shadows. While some of his appearances amount to little more than cameos, Blofeld has managed to show up in many of the best Bond films ever. Although it has not been announced who will play the new Bond in the next iteration of the franchise, it is possible that MGM and the Broccoli family will be interested in casting another promising star to appear as a rebooted Blofeld. Here is every actor who played Blofeld in the James Bond movies, ranked.

7 Anthony Dawson and Eric Pohlmann

Appeared in: ‘From Russia With Love’ (1963) and ‘Thunderball’ (1965)

Anthony Dawson and Eric Pohlmann were the first two actors to play Blofeld, and among the very few to appear in multiple installments. Dawson provided the body outline for the character, whereas Pohlmann added the voice. Their scenes in From Russia With Love and Thunderball were essential in setting up who Blofeld was, and why he was such a serious threat that he would appear within multiple installments in the series.

The lack of screentime for Blofeld in From Russia With Love and Thunderball is somewhat disappointing, as there is never a true sense of what his plans for global domination are. It was likely that this was a point in the series where MGM and the Broccoli family were still determining what type of villain Blofeld would end up being, as he rarely gets to participate in any of the action.

6 John Hollis

Appeared in: ‘For Your Eyes Only’ (1981)

John Hollis has a brief role in one of the most fascinating Bond films, as For Your Eyes Only was an attempt to return the franchise to its more grounded roots after the Roger Moore era of the franchise got a little bit too over-the-top for its own good with Moonraker. Revitalizing a villain who had made his debut in the Sean Connery era of the franchise certainly seemed like a smart way to remind audiences that Bond was inherently a serious franchise.

Unfortunately, Hollis’ role in For Your Eyes Only is little more than a cameo, as he appears in an opening sequence that is mostly there to generate laughs. It also has little emotional impact, as Blofeld has never been a threat to Moore’s interpretation of Bond, as the two characters had not interacted in the same scene before. Although it’s an amusing enough moment, especially for fans who had been watching the series from the beginning, revitalizing Blofeld just to do away with him felt like an odd way to start For Your Eyes Only, which was essentially trying to serve as a soft reboot of the saga.

5 Charles Gray

Appeared in: ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ (1971)

Charles Gray got the chance to revitalize Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever, the film that saw Connery return to the Bond franchise after the muted response to George Lazenby’s performance in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The film reveals that Blofeld has survived, and is attempting to stage a new missile attack after developing an operation in Las Vegas. The reveal of Gray is actually one of the better moments in the film, but that is not saying a lot, considering that Diamonds Are Forever is the worst Bond film that Connery ever appeared in by a fairly significant margin.

The issue with Diamonds Are Forever is that it leans to heavily into science fiction, making Blofeld’s resurrection and return feel completely unbelievable; in many ways, it predates the shocking “return” of Ian McDiarmid’s Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Gray certainly has a lot of screen presence when he gets to verbally spar with Connery, but his efforts are wasted on a film that is simply not interested in doing anything innovative with the established Bond formula.

4 Max von Sydow

Appeared in: ‘Never Say Never Again’ (1983)

Max von Sydow is easily one of the greatest actors of all-time, as any serious filmgoer deserves the opportunity to watch his work in masterpieces like The Exorcist or The Seventh Seal at least one point in their lifetime. Sydow has a brief appearance as Blofeld in one of the strangest Bond movies ever; due to a licensing dispute, Warner Brothers was able to remake the EON film Thunderball in 1983 as Never Say Never Again, with Connery returning to the role for the first time since Diamonds Are Forever. Never Say Never Again is the second of two Bond films that were produced outside of EON, with the first being the unofficial parody film Casino Royale that was released in 1967.

Sydow doesn’t have nearly enough screen time in Never Say Never Again to make a serious impact, but the few standout moments he does have are among the best parts of the film. Irvin Kershner is a filmmaker who certainly knows how to create menacing villains, but Blofeld isn’t even the main threat in Never Say Never Again. Perhaps if the film had ended up spawning a new subseries of the Bond franchise, Sydow would have been able to add more depth to the character. However, his appearance in Never Say Never Again seems like it was only included to make reference to the vast history of the series.

3 Christoph Waltz

Appeared in: ‘Spectre’ (2015) and ‘No Time To Die’ (2021)

Christoph Waltz has played more than a few memorable villains, as following his Academy Award victory for Best Supporting Actor in Inglourious Basterds, he popped up as bad guys in The Three Musketeers, Carnage, The Legend of Tarzan, and Big Eyes. Spectre saw a radical reinvention of Blofeld as a character, as it established that he was actually the adopted brother of Bond (Daniel Craig) that helped transition the Quantum organization into SPECTRE.

Spectre is an overstuffed film with a number of great Blofeld moments, even if his motivations are treated as a last minute reveal. Although some may have felt that the grittier Bond film should have introduced another original villain who wasn’t based on an existing character, Waltz was given the opportunity to close out his complex relationship with his half-brother when he makes a brief cameo appearance in No Time To Die.

2 Terry Savalas

Appeared in: ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ (1969)

Terry Savalas was able to reinvent Blofeld in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which is an all-time great masterpiece that was met with muted responses at the time of its initial release because it did not conform to what fans felt that they wanted out of a Bond sequel. The film opted to show a version of Bond who was actually vulnerable, as he ends up falling in love with his ally Tracy (Diana Rigg) over the course of their action-packed adventure in the Swiss Alps.

Salvas was able to showcase a more psychological side of Blofeld, as he is involved in a secret series of drug tests involved in a brainwashing conspiracy. While previous iterations of the character had been rather over-the-top, Salvas depicted Blofeld as the type of secret power elite member who could actually exist. Given that On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was released during an era in which tensions between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were at an all-time high amidst the ongoing Cold War, Salvas’ work felt even more disturbing.

1 Donald Pleasence

Appeared in: ‘You Only Live Twice’ (1967)

Donald Pleasence is hands down the most iconic version of Blofeld, as it was the first instance in which the character was revealed for being the threat that he is. Even though Connery would eventually return two more times to play Bond, You Only Live Twice felt like the conclusion to his arc as the character that had begun in 1962 with Dr. No. It only made sense that he would be facing off with SPECTRE in a final battle, and Blofeld had to make an appearance.

Pleasence worked as Blofeld because he was the complete opposite of Bond; he often remained in the shadows so that others could do his bidding, and was willing to use any instrument of capitalism or political influence in order to achieve his evil plans. Although he was often legitimately scary, there’s an element of Pleasence’s performance that is intentionally campy. In fact, the over-the-top way he characterized the greatest villain in the Bond universe served as the direct inspiration for Mike Myers’ Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers franchise, as well as Mr. Burns on The Simpsons.

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