Where is a video: Blofeld's Cat: Worst to Best?

Agree, the Blofeld in Spectre was a bit of a disappointment. The "Finish it!" part was quite 'non-Blofeld-like'. He should have offered Bond a delicatessen... in stainless steel. Very nice list Calvin!

Fun observation: At the beginning of Diamonds Are Forever, you can see the plastic surgeons working on a series of mannequins that seem to change from Donald Pleasance into Charles Gray.

Totally agree with the whole "adopted brother thing". It sucked. Poor and constructed attempt at increased drama.

Calvin: “Ernst Stavro Blofeld is simply the most iconic villain in all of cinema” I find your lack of faith disturbing.

While he was great as Scaramanga, I feel that Christopher Lee would have made a wonderful Blofeld and would have been a more natural successor to the Dawson/Polhmann duo.

Telly Savalas was the best by far. He was just a guy. His menace wasn’t in his scars. It was truly in his intimidating persona he displayed through his acting.

I think Waltz is creepy and menacing but underused in Spectre

I really like Donald Pleasance's psychotic take on Blofeld, but I really like Savalas' "Lex Luthor" style; he's one of the few Bond evil masterminds that also exudes a sense of physical menace. They really should be thought of as 2 separate villains, even though their characters share the same name. Charles Gray was way too much like someone's doddering old uncle. Waltz was good.

My favorite is Savalas, easily.

Donald Pleasance was the best Blofield.

I really like the Savalas Blofeld. He fits the description that's given in the books quite well. And you can believe him as the boss of Klebb, Kronsteen, Largo and all the other. I dont see Pleasance scaring Klebb or being Largo's boss

1. Telly Savalas, the Physical/Literary Blofeld 2. Donald Pleasence, the Classic Blofeld 3. Anthony Dawson/Eric Pohlmann, the Mysterious Blofeld 4. Christoph Waltz, the Troll Blofeld 5. Max von Sydow, the Wasted Blofeld 6. Charles Gray, the Campy Blofeld 7. John Hollis/Robert Rietty, the Nameless Blofeld

OHMSS is the most underrated Bond film of all time imo. First Bond to have any sort of emotional depth/ vulnerability. Beautiful visuals and stellar actions sequences, chases etc.

I get you couldn't get past Savalas' accent, but Telly Savalas I feel made the character his own and different than Pleasance's character and portrayal. He added a sinister and menacing element to him and was truly Bond's match and adversary.

My favorite part about Pleaseance's Blofeld is his relationships with his cat. At first, cat sits on his lap, and Blofeld strokes it. Then cat starts to hang like a ragdoll, as Blofel carries it around. Eventually, it tries to break free, as Blofeld obviously hurts it and holds against it's will. It speaks volume, that man is authoritarian and controlling even with his cat!

Donald Pleasance and the Anthony Dawson/Eric Pohlmann incarnations are actually tied for me. The Dawson/Pohlmann Blofeld just had this air of mystery about him, with that deep, intelligent voice and the fact that he was never seen besides the lower half of his body (and we musn't forget the cat) and a hint of slicked back hair. Like Calvin says, it's kept mainly up to your imagination, which is what gives him an edge. This is the incarnation that inspired Doctor Claw from Inspector Gadget, for Chrissakes! But when Blofeld needed to finally be shown, Donald Pleasance was more than satisfactory. Sure, he probably didn't look like what we were expecting, and he had a change in voice, but that's the genius of the character; he's a chameleon of a mastermind in the novels (taken up to eleven in DAF), always changing his appearance to take someone off-guard, and Pleasance certainly took us all off-guard with his light German accent and the dueling scar. I wish that they'd produced the films in such an order that MAYBE Pleasance could've been in at least one more film, but that probably would've been asking too much.

As much I enjoyed Charles Gray as Blofeld my favourite performance of his was as Mycroft Holmes alongside Jeremy Brett as Sherlock in the ITV series. I also loved Gray's parting line in "The Devil Rides Out" : "I shall not be back....but something will".

telly savalas or donald pleasence ... both brilliant

Telly was my favorite Blofeld, I even mimic the way he smokes a cigarette!

You gotta give Charles Gray credit, he at least knew he was making a bad movie, so he went all in on hamming it up

At the moment I am reading Thunderball the book where Blofeld and SPECTRE make their first appearance. Blofeld was a Pole who sold secrets to the Nazis before they invaded Poland and he fled to Turkey for sanctuary where he offered them his scientific abilities. When the Nazis were losing the war Blofeld took the advantage and joined the Allies to make a name for himself.

My favourite Blofeld will always be Donald Pleasence. He was the first Blofeld I saw and since he was the first Blofeld, I see him as the best Blofeld.

Is Calvin wearing a SPECTRE ring? Is Calvin a member of SPECTRE? ;-)

Charles *_JUST A JUMP TO THE LEFT_* Gray

Waltz's Blofeld didn't dedicate his life to pissing off Bond. He dedicated his life to SPECTRE. He created the organisation and masterminded the plans of the previous three movies and Bond happened to stumble into them. So Blofeld just took the opportunity to mess with him; he didn't create SPECTRE specifically with Bond in mind. After all, the Nine Eyes plan was just a good old take over the world scheme- not aimed directly at Bond. Although, I also do not agree with the "Finish it" bit.

Telly Savalas. A memorable performance.

Thank you! Finally someone admitted that this "adopted brother thing" sucks. I hated the whole movie because of it. Sir Ian Fleming never write something like this. Why they wanna change the past of Bond. They should not mess with the legacy. Same goes for the new "Star Trek Films" as well.

I LOOOOVE Telly Savalas as Blofeld. He was physically and ethnically a perfect match for who Fleming described. Not only that, he exuded an animalistic power, the casual arrogance of an apex predator, that none of the other actors seemed to be able to match. This Blofeld fought Bond 1 on 1 and all but defeated him. He also killed Tracy, the only woman Bond truly ever loved, hence he's the Bond villain who inflicted the most emotional trauma on Bond. His full baritone has all the menace of the first appearances of Blofeld in FRWL and Thunderball. Savalas truly brought something special to the character.

While not completely book accurate (he still looks very different, for example), Savalas' Blofeld comes the closest to how Blofeld is portrayed in the books. He's not just an over-the-top mastermind, he's actually a rather charming-yet-intimidating man with a real physical presence who's a true match for Bond in every way. It's the only screen portrayal of Blofeld where he felt like a true nemesis to Bond. A Moriarty to Bond's Holmes While Im not saying Constance's version was bad, he just felt rather--not sure if "hammy" is the right word, but he felt rather like a cartoon character by comparison to both the book and OHMSS portrayals of Blofeld. He didnt feel like a true nemesis to Bond in the way that book or Savalas's Blofeld did

Think one could say Darth Vader is more iconic

I thought Waltz's performance was great. I think it's a good change to the character as the newer movies are more serious.

Fun fact: With the original actor Jan Werich playing Blofeld in YOLT, he was going to be dubbed by the FRWL/TB actor who voiced Blofeld.

1. Telly Savalas 2. Donald Pleasence 3. Christoph Waltz 4. Charles Gray 5. Max Von Sydow 6. Anthony Dawson/ Eric Pohlmann 7. John Hollis/ Robert Rietty

Personally, I think Christoper Lee could have been a great Blofeld for You Only Live Twice. His physique is closer to Dawson, and he has deep voice.

Great review Calvin. I absolutely agree. Especially with your No 1. Blofeld is so much more frightening if his appearance is left to our imagination. He also always should be ahead of the film's villains Bond has to fight against. He also should not be in the center of the film but giving instructions to the villains in the beginning.

I think blofield in Spectre was the best I study psychology and u have no idea how many cases I see where the most disturbed people, remain calm while having a mental break and not even kidding 75% of all mental cases are caused with either a childhood tragedy or mother or father issues. And blofield plan in this film would have to be the most realistic.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaam Calvin back at it again with the great content!! Lol, love to see the TWO videos, you're really treating us this month.

Donald Pleasance is my favourite. Even though the actor was British, the accent was done perfectly by him

12:11 A scar so terrifying even the cat wants to get the hell away from him.

I think Mark Strong would make a great Blofeld. He rocks the bald look, he can play villain, physically very fit and has played various nationalities and ethnicities in other films e.g. Arabs, Italians and South Africans. His family background is Italian and Austrian and grew up in the UK.

1.Donald Pleasence 2.Telly Savalas 3.Charles Gray 4.Christoph Waltz

I just wanted to get off my chest how much I appreciate most of your videos. I rarely ever agree with you but I love the way in which you explain your choices. I can't *believe* your channel has so few subscribers, and I try to direct as many people as I can to it.

I always loved Donald Pleasance as Blofeld, but growing older I've started leaning more towards the Telly Savalas and Faceless Blofelds. A part of me wishes they had followed up on the Dawson/Pohlmann take by matching the characters physical description. But one could think that in the aftermath of operation Thunderball, Blofeld received a horrible plastic surgery attempt that left him the scar, and ended up shaving his hair off. I always thought the Faceless Blofeld would look like a Cary Grant looking male, with his smoothe voice and all.

I love Savala's Blofeld! Absolutely adore him. On the other side of the spectrum (no pun intended) I put Gray's, I just can't stand his Blofeld.

Donald was simply the best and Waltz was simply the worse!

I liked Donald Pleasant's nasty, monocle shaped scar, but you gotta love Charles, "a man in search of a neck," Gray.

in spectre he says "i am ernst stavro blofeld" in such a non- chilling voice he sounds like a kid

For me Telly Savalas is the best Blofeld. On top of being the only Blofeld that could pose a physical threat to Bond, he's also incredibly suave and menacing.

1. From Russia With Love & Thunderball 2. You Only Live Twice 3. Spectre 4. Diamonds Are Forever 5. On Her Majesty's Secret Service 6. For Your Eyes Only 7. Never Say Never Again

Hugely enjoyable, thank you!

Donald Pleasence was undoubtedly the best, brilliant actor, piercing eyes, legendary voice. Everything you need in a villainous character!!

When reading the book description of Blofeld in Thunderball, I imagine him looking like Brian Dennehey in First Blood. He is meant to be huge, and a former weightlifter. And in the YOLT book, he is strong enough to give Bond a hard fight physically.

Nice video. One thing I've always wondered is why 'Swiss clinic' Blofeld doesn't recognise James Bond as Bray. They'd only recently met in his volcano lair in Japan.

I always had a theory about Diamonds. The real Blofield isn’t in the film, instead these are all of his decoy’s. While the real fella is off recovering from his broken neck, he’s sent in his decoys to finish the work. Bond being on “holiday” was supposed to be his honeymoon but obviously THAT happened and he spent the whole holiday tracking down who he thought was Blofield. That’s my headcannon to make the transition from OHMSS to Diamonds work better and later FYEO.

interesting top list..thank you..its always very personal and thats what makes it interesting

Awesome video as always! My top would be: 1) From Russia With Love & Thunderball 2) You Only Live Twice 3) On Her Majesty's Secret Service 4) For Your Eyes Only 5) SPECTRE 6) Diamonds Are Forever I've only seen Never Say Never Again once, so I can't really judge about Max :P

I do hope they do more with Blofeld in the Craig movies. To be fair, it was a nice base to start things up on.

7: Charles Grey 6: Max von Sydow 5: Christoph Waltz 4: Telly Savalas 3: John Hollis 2: Anithony Dawson 1: Donald Pleasence

I was watching the extra features on the 1979 Dracula Blu-ray and Frank Langella said that Donald Pleasence was a "Handkerchief actor". This meant that he would do things other than speaking on camera, most likely to give more personality to his character and also to get more on screen time. This would include blowing his nose in a handkerchief or eating a candies during after saying a line. This scar being an idea of his seems very much in character for him. Also, have you seen the the 1979 Dracula? There's actually a scene in it that was filmed by Maurice Binder in a very similar fashion to the opening bond titles he did.

Disappointed Savalas is at 4 but number 1 is an inspired choice, totally agree with it. Flemings description of Blofelds appearance in the books changes a lot, he goes from, ''20 stone with a black crew cut'' to ''thin with long silver hair'', quite the shapeshifter, so Charles Grey dressing in drag is quite uncannily close to his vision... Well maybe not. lol

1. Kojak 2. Faceless 3. Pleasence 4. Von Sydow 5. Gray 6. Waltz 7. Delicatessen Telly's accent doesn't bother me, and I actually really like the idea that Blofeld is a glorified thug behind all the smoke and mirrors. I might have ranked Doctor Loomis over Dawson if Pohlmann had dubbed Donald for most of the movie (implying that ol' Ernst was using a voice modifier on his mic to sound more intimidating). Despite not having much of a presence in NSNA, Max never slips into bad territory, and he physically matches Dawson more closely than his predecessors did. I love the Criminologist as much as anyone, but he was an embarrassment after the wife-murdering Savalas. Waltz was mostly hampered by the idiotic decisions regarding his backstory, identity, and motivations, but even without those problems, I still wouldn't stick him higher than fourth place. And even Doctor Evil is a more legitimate take on Blofeld than that farce of a character in FYEO (but that silly line does make for a good in-joke among fans).

1. Telly Savalas 2. Donald Pleasance 3. Anthony Dawson/Eric Pohlmann 4. Charles Gray 5. Christoph Waltz 6. John Hollia/Robert Rietty 7. Max von Sydow

Love the Blofeldesque/Spectre ring, Calvin.

1.) Donald Pleasance 2.) Anthony Dawson/Eric Pohlman 3.) Telly Savalas 4.) Christoph Waltz 5.) John Hollis/Robert Rietty 6.) Charles Gray 7.) The unofficial Max Von Sydow

Blofeld being Bond's brother was...just...the most cliche, anti-Bond (thematically) thing they could ever do. I hated that so much. Made no sense at all. That being said, I think Charles Gray was my favorite Blofeld.

1: From Russia With Love/Thunderball 2: You Only Live Twice 3: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 4: For Your Eyes Only 5: Spectre 6: Never Say Never Again 7: Diamonds are Forever

Anthony Dawson/Eric Pohlmann is my favorite... something about that voice... and the anonymity of him makes him incredibly threatening. Second... I gotta say... Telly has grown on me. He’s not as creepy as Pleasance but he’s the perfect combination of enigmatic, menacing, but also suave and even a physical match for Bond. He sounds vaguely enough like Pohlmann’s Bloefeld too...

Great video 1 On Her Majesty's Secret Service 2 From Russia With Love and Thuderball 3 You Only Live Twice 4 Diamonds Are Forever 5 Spectre 6 For Your Eyes Only 7 Never Say Never Again

Telly Savalas was my favorite.

I think you've summed up my liking for Charles Gray. I wouldn't say he was my favourite Blofeld, but I always really liked his portrayal.

Brilliant video Calvin! Will you ever do an updated bond film ranking video? I enjoyed your last one a lot.

"He WOULD HAVE been me in a matter of days if you'd given the poor fellow a chance."

the best Blofeld? Dr. Evil, of course!

Donald pleasence is by far the best Blofeld, he even continued acting as Blofeld even after being scratched by the cat 20 times. Now that’s commitment

Donald Pleasance was the Blofeld character which most closely met the description in the Ian Fleming novels. All others were just quirky versions, adapted to meet the then-current "villain" motif.

My favorite is Savalas, Great performance, presence and are in his movie throughout. Pleasance may be more iconic, but I find his acting a little stiff and he's only in YOLT at the end for about 15-20 mins. Gray and Waltz both miscasted and wasted, but maybe Waltz will be better in the No Time to Die

Great analysis and I mostly agree. However for me hands down the best the Charles Gray. The man oozes class and has an understated menace. He had the range to build on the character more than screen-time allowed.

My favourite was telly savalas. Something about the way he was holding his cigarette in OHMSS. And the voice when instructing his ladies through their compacts.

I feel the Telly Savalas Blofeld is easily the best (full-body) portrayal. Very sophisticated, more physically imposing and plausible than other incarnations. He's also probably the most accurate to the books, whilst reading OHMSS, bar the lack of hair I could really picture him in the role. Waltz had potential but they completely misunderstood the character of Blofeld and greatly undermined the menace and mystery of the character - hoping No Time To Die fixes this, but given his shaky character foundations i'm not too sure.

The producers admitted that Charles Gray was utterly miscast.

Mabye Bond has a secret love of coleslaw.

The ranking of Charles Grey as Blofeld and the Rocky Horror reference just earned you another subscriber lol 👍🏻

Yes, you really got it. Complete agreement. Congrats. Loved this.

Where's Dr. Evil?

I have not hated any video, keep up the good work Calvin

I think Telly Savalas’ Blofield was my favorite. I liked the idea of Blofield being a liar and con about his history and pedigree, the gangster with a thin sophisticated accent seeking to be seen as European aristocracy. A lead villain happy to have his minions deal with problems, so he can work in the lab himself, but having the physicality to take on Bond mono e mono if necessary and with sufficient back-up. On the surface he was just charming enough, but his threatening barbs still were made plain and his willingness to kill or sacrifice his own was unquestionably demonstrated.

The first Blofeld that I saw was in Thunderball, which was also the first bond film that I saw. I saw the movie on the big screen in its first run. Even though I was a kid and didn't know much about the James Bond stories, I got it right away that this guy was seriously bad ass. Even at a meeting of his top guys, his face is hidden. If one of them messes up, he gets kill on the spot, the body disposed of, and the meeting goes on without him! It was particularly memorable and effective to have Blofeld mostly visible and fully lit, with the face only partly obscured by Venetian blinds. It WAS one of the most effectively portrayed Blofelds. It would have been great to have used this portrayal one more time.

05:54 He would probably offer him a delicatessen in stainless steel.

1. YOLT 2. FRWL/TB 3. FYEO 4. OHMSS 5. DAF 6. SP 7. NSNA

I think you nailed it, I completely agree with your order.

Yup...the best Blofeld was the one we never saw. He was calm, cold and collected.

I will agree Waltz was disappointing but I'd take rank him over the Diamonds Are Forever Blofeld any day of the week.

what happened to diamonds are forever review

What i like about Donald Pleasance's Blofeld is he rarely or never blinks

I like Blofeld in From Russia with Love and Thunderball because of his voice and Blofeld in OHMSS the most.

DP best Blofeld!!!

Donald Pleasance was also good as Thomas Cromwell in Henry VIII and His Six Wives from 1972. Off topic I know but in that film Keith Michell plays Henry VIII and he I think does the best portrayal of England's most famous king in the same way Roger Moore (I agree with you Calvin) is the best James Bond. I think the second best portrayal of Henry VIII was by Robert Shaw (Red Grant in From Russia With Love) in A Man for All Seasons from 1966.

The first video I watched of your channel all those videos ago

I'm guessing they did re-writes to suit Charles Gray [and maybe some of the characters writing is left over from the 'Goldfinger's twin brother' idea] but the 'Diamonds' Blofeld certainly feels 'in name only' and is best viewed as a separate character as he is so different from any other portrayal.