James Bond: Ranking Every Blofeld From Worst To Best

How could any iteration top the original man in the shadows?

That's the quandary of Ernst Stavro Blofeld. So sinister was the mysterious figure who lurked unseen, pulling the strings of SPECTRE's fiendish plots while remaining completely and utterly out of the worldly reach of Her Majesty's Secret Service, that when the curtain was finally pulled back in subsequent films... it was bound to disappoint at least a little.

For raising the bar so high, we can only thank the combined efforts of Anthony Dawson (aka Professor Dent from 1962's Dr No) and Eric Pohlmann. As Dawson's hands set to work stroking Blofeld's iconic white pussy cat while Pohlmann's voice terrified underlings and set the stage for SPECTRE's grandiose plans for world domination, the sheer depth of the organization's power and influence became clear.

Creating the behemothic head of SPECTRE was no small task - but these two pulled it off while showing just enough to always leave 007 fans chomping at the bit for more. Yet none of the portrayals that followed in You Only Live Twice onwards quite managed to fully harken back to the one that started it all.

A mastermind who schemes from behind a desk to bring world powers to their knees, without ever showing his face. Who reduces otherwise feared criminals to sweating wrecks as they await his clinical judgment. Who would set up East and West alike as players in his game, waiting for the right time to play his hand. Before, like SPECTRE - as SPECTRE - he strikes.

It's this man, one could very easily argue, that the cinematic James Bond has never truly met.