10 Movie Villains Who Got Disappointingly Lame Deaths

9. Ernst Stavro Blofeld - For Your Eyes Only

James McAvoy Glass
MGM

There have been many lame Bond villain deaths over the years, yet none quite as embarrassingly ill-conceived as the demise of "Blofeld" in For Your Eyes Only.

The iconic antagonist is killed off in the film's opening sequence, and while that might sound like a bold move on paper, it was ultimately due to a legal dispute between screenwriter Kevin McClory and Eon Productions/United Artists over the copyright to Thunderball and, in turn, Blofeld.

As a result, Blofeld couldn't be formally identified on-screen, with a character bearing an uncanny resemblance to him whose face is never shown - played by John Hollis and credited as "Bald-Headed Man with White Cat" - instead battling 007 (Roger Moore) in the pre-title sequence.

It's not so much the writing around Blofeld that stings, though, as the toe-curlingly goofy manner of his death, where Bond scoops up his wheelchair with a helicopter and promptly dumps him down a giant chimney.

A villain as iconic as Blofeld deserved a much better end than this, and given that the character didn't get another canon appearance in a Bond film until Spectre over 30 years later, it left an especially sour taste.

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Contributor

Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.