Every Main James Bond Villain Ranked Worst To Best

4. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (On Her Majesty's Secret Service, 1969)

Finally, an incarnation of Blofeld that can live up to the mysterious, dangerous figure obscured and unseen in the earlier films. OHMSS boasts a diabolical badass Blofeld that’s fully capable of going toe to toe with Bond physically.

In his scheme to hypnotise and control a selection of hand picked “angels of death” to tactically spread bacterial warfare across the globe unless his demands are met, he also demonstrates the fiendish and cunning villainy we’ve come to expect from Bond’s most famous nemesis.

The casting of an American in Telly Savalas as Blofeld may annoy purists, but this is the definitive version of the character as a main villain. This is a Blofeld that can bruise as well as cause international bedlam. With his complicity in the murder of Tracy Bond at the film’s climax, he’s also the villain that wounded Bond the most deeply, in the most lasting manner, an act that depending on your reading of canon, Bond never truly avenged.

Best Moment: With Bond’s cover as Sir Hilary Bray blown, Blofeld sneers, cigarette in hand, as he lauds over the discovery of his enemy. “Merry Christmas, 007!”

Worst Moment: However, it’s a little annoying in itself that we’re forced to accept the conceit that Blofeld and Bond have never met in person prior to this film, and ignore the events of You Only Live Twice. The whole lengthy sequence with Bond masquerading as Bray before being “unmasked” feels like a weak point in the film that squanders the full dramatic potential of 007 facing off with Blofeld.