10 James Bond Villains Who Simply Vanished
6. Professor Joe Butcher
Licence to Kill (1989) boasts some of the most vicious villains to ever appear in the franchise. Railing against this, Wayne Newton’s Professor Joe Butcher harks back to the Roger Moore era, injecting some necessary comic relief into the proceedings.
A televangelist who is ostensibly restoring the Olimpatec Mediation Institute (OMI) outside Isthmus City, Butcher is actually using his charitable enterprise as a front to communicate the prices of Franz Sanchez’s (Robert Davi’s) drugs to dealers in the United States of America. Professor Joe’s dedicated reconstruction of the OMI also conceals Sanchez’s main drug processing facility.
Whilst the sleazy Butcher unsuccessfully attempts to seduce savvy former army pilot, Pam Bouvier (Carey Lowell), James Bond (Timothy Dalton) sets in motion a chain of explosions that ultimately destroys the OMI.
As Double-0 Seven and Pam escape from the exploding facility, Pam deftly snatches back a bag full of cash that she used to buy her way into the OMI from Professor Joe as he runs for safety. Even the crooked televangelist cannot help giving one last smile as he calls after her with his catchphrase: “Bless your heart!”
No doubt he managed to charm his way into another criminal enterprise soon afterwards...