Another summer passes without a new Bond movie. Indeed, we're no closer to knowing whose photo will next adorn 007's licence to kill. But, as Cinema Paradiso marks the 60th anniversary of Goldfinger and the 50th of The Man With the Golden Gun, the focus falls on the villains whose ingenious schemes and sinister sidekicks are crucial to the franchise's wit, suspense, and spectacle.
![A still from Goldfinger (1964)](https://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/film-stills/547079-20843-clp-1784.jpg)
If the 25 films in the Eon series have taught us anything, it's that James Bond would be just another 00 without the various sociopaths, warmongers, megalomaniacs, and loose cannons he has prevented from achieving world domination. Among the rogues' gallery are mad scientists, double agents, druglords, corrupt generals, media barons, financial tycoons, terrorists, and criminal masterminds. And that's before we've even mentioned SMERSH or SPECTRE.
Iconic heroes need hissable villains and - whether in the guise of Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, or Daniel Craig - 007 has encountered numerous fiendish foes whose dastardly schemes have brought out the best (and occasionally the worst) in him. Invariably secreted in an elaborately futuristic lair, each Bond baddie has a way with words. They also deserve credit for their recruitment skills, as they have always had a small army of ruthlessly cunning sidekicks, murderously alluring femmes fatales, and blindly loyal henchlings at their disposal.
Although less dramatically than Doctor Who's, James Bond's personality changes with each new incumbency. Yet, despite the rumours surrounding Aaron Taylor-Johnson (among countless others), we still wait to see who will be next to brandish the trademark Walther P99. One thing is for sure, however, his nemesis will be larger than life, recklessly ambitious, criminously creative, and quick with a quip. For all the devastating brilliance of their outlandish plans, however, Bond villains always have a chink in their armour. And, when it comes to exploiting them, nobody does it better...
Casino Royale (William H. Brown, Jr., 1954)
BOND: Barry Nelson
VILLAIN: Le Chiffre (Peter Lorre)
BACKSTORY: Much of the biographical detail given in Ian Fleming's 1953 novel was omitted from this 50-minute entry in the US drama series, Climax! (1954-58). But we do learn that Le Chiffre adopted his name after being just a number as a displaced person at the end of the Second World War. While he's a skilled operator in the murky world of espionage, Le Chiffre is also a compulsive gambler, who has used Soviet funds to run up a debt of several million francs. Therefore, Bond, an American working for the Combined Intelligence Agency, is instructed to play him at baccarat and bankrupt him so that he will be retired by his Soviet paymasters.
FIENDISH PLAN: Having lost heavily at the table, Le Chiffre goes to Bond's room with his bodyguards and mistress, Valerie Mathis (Linda Christian), in order to torture him into handing over his winnings. However, Mathis is an undercover agent for the Deuxième Bureau.
HQ & QUIRKS: Although hideouts and hang-ups would become a key part of a Bond villain's shtick, there's nothing to report here beside Lorre's usual acting tics. Moreover, there is no truth in the rumour that the camera caught Lorre getting up and walking off the set after Le Chiffre's demise during the live TV broadcast.
QUIPS: 'All right Mr Bond where's that money? Look Mr Bond, as you should know by now I'm quite without mercy and if you continue to be that obstinate, I'll have to torture - you'll be tortured to the edge of madness. Believe me. You have no hope whatsoever. You hear. None.'
SIDEKICKS: Burly bodyguards Basil, Zoltan, and Zuroff, as well as Valerie Mathis, who is a composite of Vesper Lynd and René Mathis.
TRIVIA: The teleplay was co-written by Charles Bennett; who had worked on Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), Secret Agent, Sabotage (both 1936), and Young and Innocent (1937). Fleming received $1000 for the rights to his novel and accepted CBS's 1958 offer to write 32 Bond episodes for a TV series that failed to materialise.
Dr No (Terence Young, 1962)
![A still from James Bond: Doctor No (1962) With Jack Lord And Sean Connery](https://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/film-stills/689081-24942-clp-1707.jpg)
BOND: Sean Connery
VILLAIN: Dr Julius No (Joseph Wiseman)
BACKSTORY: Born in Beijing as the unwanted child of a German missionary and a Chinese woman, Dr No used the $10 million in gold bullion he had stolen from the Tongs to conduct research into radiation. His work cost him his hands, although he has great strength in his bionic replacements.
FIENDISH PLAN: Having failed to strike a deal with the Soviets or the Americans, Dr No joined SPECTRE (the Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion), which backs his plot to sabotage a pioneering space mission, Project Mercury, by using a radio beam to jam communication at Cape Canaveral.
HQ & QUIRKS: No's base on the Jamaican island of Crab Key has a giant aquarium, as well as a swimming pool reactor. Opting for Nehru jackets and prone to sadism, No can't resist boasting about his plan over dinner the night before he puts it into practice, thus, giving Bond all the information he needs to thwart it.
QUIPS: 'East, West - just points of the compass, each as stupid as the other.'
SIDEKICKS: Miss Taro (Zena Marshall) - a snooping secretary who uses sex to try and trap Bond; Professor R.J. Dent (Anthony Dawson) - a hapless henchman who fails to off 007 with a venomous spider or a Smith & Wesson; Annabel Chung (Marguerite LeWars) - Daily Gleaner photographer on No's payroll; Mr Jones (Reginald Carter) - the chauffeur who suicides with a cyanide-laced cigarette; The Three Blind Mice (Eric Coverley, Charles Edghill, and Henry Lopez) - assassins whose handiwork brings Bond to the Caribbean.
TRIVIA: As fans of Roger Michell's The Duke (2020) will know, Francisco Goya's newly acquired portrait of the Duke of Wellington was stolen from the National Gallery in 1961. Mischievously, production designer Ken Adam slipped it into the décor of Dr No's lair.
From Russia With Love (Terence Young, 1963)
![A still from James Bond: From Russia with Love (1963)](https://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/film-stills/1100761-33488-clp-1793.jpg)
BOND: Sean Connery
VILLAIN: Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya)
BACKSTORY: Named in nod to the Soviet 'bread and roses' slogan pertaining to women's rights, Colonel Klebb acted as a double agent while head of SMERSH. On defecting, she joined SPECTRE and became the trusted second deputy to Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Anthony Dawson; voice Eric Pohlmann).
FIENDISH PLAN: Seeking to avenge Dr No on behalf of SPECTRE, Klebb lures Bond into her web using a Lektor decoding device. She dupes cipher clerk Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) into helping Bond steal the gadget from the consulate in Istanbul. But Klebb wants to purloin it herself and dispatches Red Grant (Robert Shaw) to retrieve it and dispose of 007. He fails, however, leaving Klebb to eliminate rival Tev Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) in a bid to save face with Bloefeld by killing Bond herself.
HQ & QUIRKS: Torn between destroying Bond's reputation through a sex scandal and bumping him off, Klebb ties on her poisoned blade-tipped sensible shoes and kicks out at a startled 007, who resorts to fending her off with a chair.
QUIPS: 'Who can the Russians suspect, but the British. The Cold War in Istanbul will not remain cold very much longer.'
SIDEKICKS: Donald 'Red' Grant (Robert Shaw) - a convicted murderer who escaped from Dartmouth Prison and was recruited by SPECTRE in Tangiers. He is sent to kill Bond aboard the Orient Express; Kronsteen (Vladek Sheybal) - Czechoslovakian chess master and SPECTRE strategist who devises the plan to entrap Bond; Morzeny (Walter Gotell) - the head of SPECTRE training who makes the mistake of touching Klebb's arm.
TRIVIA: The first choice for Rosa Klebb was Katina Paxinou, the Greek actress who had won the Best Supporting Oscar for her debut performance in Sam Wood's For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). After hearing one of her recordings, however, director Terence Young plumped for Lotte Lenya, the Austrian widow of Kurt Weill, who had teamed with Bertolt Brecht to write her the role of Jenny in The Threepenny Opera, which was filmed in 1931 by G.W. Pabst.
Goldfinger (Guy Hamilton, 1964)
![A still from Goldfinger (1964)](https://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/film-stills/547067-20843-clp-1784.jpg)
BOND: Sean Connery
VILLAIN: Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe)
BACKSTORY: Despite appearing to be a respectable businessman, Auric Goldfinger (who is British but 'doesn't sound like it') smuggles and hoards gold. Fond of gin rummy and golf, he can't resist cheating and enlists the help of his Korean henchman, Oddjob (Harold Sakata), to win a Nazi ingot in a wager with Bond over 18 holes. Taking sadistic pleasure in eliminating his enemies, Goldfinger is the master of the elaborate execution.
FIENDISH PLAN: When the Bank of England becomes suspicious of Goldfinger's operating procedures, Bond is sent to investigate. Amused by being surveilled, Goldfinger lets 007 believe that he is planning a raid on the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox. In fact, he intends detonating a dirty bomb to irradiate the metal and, thus, make it unusable for 58 years in order to increase the value of his own stocks.
HQ & QUIRKS: Goldfinger has a refinery in Switzerland (where he keeps a laser table with which 007 gets rather too up close and personal) and a stud farm near Lexington, Kentucky. He also has a plentiful supply of gold paint, as Jill Masterson (Shirley Eaton) discovers, and a way with caper names, like 'Operation Grand Slam'.
QUIPS: 'No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die!'
SIDEKICKS: Oddjob (Olympic silver-winnng weightlifter, Harold Sakata) - a grimly loyal manservant with a metal-brimmed square-top bowler hat; Pussy Galore (Honor Blackman) - Goldfinger's personal pilot, who switches sides while floating earthwards by parachute; Mr Ling (Bert Kwouk) - the Chinese Communist fission specialist conspiring to irradiate Fort Knox.
TRIVIA: When Orson Welles asked for too much money, producers Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli cast Gert Fröbe on the strength of his performance as a serial killer in Ladislao Vajda's It Happened in Broad Daylight (1958). As he spoke little English, the German read some lines phonetically, while the rest were dubbed by TV actor, Michael Collins, who performed the same task on Ken Hughes's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968), which was also adapted from an Ian Fleming story.
Thunderball (Terence Young, 1965)
![A still from Thunderball (1965) With Claudine Auger And Sean Connery](https://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/film-stills/852290-30677-clp-1912.jpg)
BOND: Sean Connery
VILLAIN: Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi)
BACKSTORY: Nobody knows why he wears a black patch over his left eye, but Emilio Largo trades on being a man of mystery. Is he a Neapolitan black marketeer or the last survivor of a Roman crime dynasty? What is certain is that he is second-in-command at SPECTRE and heads up the organisation's extortion rackets.
FIENDISH PLAN: Plan Omega involves the capture of two nuclear missiles from an RAF bomber on a training exercise. Once they have been secured, SPECTRE demands £100 million or it will detonate the devices in unnamed locations in Britain and the United States.
HQ & QUIRKS: Largo's estate in the Bahamas is Palmyra, where he docks his enormous private yacht, the Disco Volante. Closer inspection reveals this to have an underwater hold. Bond also gets to see the large swimming pool that Largo has filled with sharks. A cruel man, who inflicts pain without pity or pleasure, Largo (whose dialogue was dubbed by Robert Rietty) tortures his mistress, Domino (Claudine Auger), when he discovers that she has betrayed him after learning that her NATO pilot brother has been killed.
QUIPS: 'Stop it! Stop it! You fools! He's got you all shooting at each other!'
SIDEKICKS: Fiona Volpe (Luciana Paluzzi) - the SPECTRE agent who seduces the French pilot and murders her careless accomplice, Count Lippe (Guy Doleman); Angelo Palazzi (Paul Stassino) - the operative who resembles the pilot and takes his place to steal the bombs; Vargas (Philip Locke) and Janni (Michael Brennan) - Largo's most trusted henchmen, who provide muscle and menace.
TRIVIA: A dozen members of SPECTRE appear in the film, including Blofeld. Mike Myers was clearly more interested in Largo, however, as he was the inspiration for Number Two (Robert Wagner) in the Austin Powers spoof trilogy of International Man of Mystery (1997), The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), and Goldmember (2002). Other members of Dr Evil's inner circle with Bond connections are Frau Farbissina (Mindy Sterling) and Random Task (Joe Son), who were respectively based on Rosa Klebb and Oddjob.
![A still from Casino Royale (1967)](https://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/film-stills/558525-20987-clp-1912.jpg)
Casino Royale (John Huston, Ken Hughes, Val Guest, Robert Parrish, Joe McGrath, 1967)
BOND: David Niven
VILLAIN: Dr Noah (Woody Allen)
BACKSTORY: Following in the footsteps of his famous uncle, Jimmy Bond joined MI6 and received a posting in the Caribbean. As he proved a disappointment, he adopted the guise of Dr Noah and became the head of SMERSH in order to pursue his nefarious aims.
FIENDISH PLAN: Blaming James Bond for all his frustrations, Jimmy sets out to destroy his uncle's reputation by disposing of British, American, Soviet, and French agents with the intention of luring 007 out of retirement so that he can expose the myth of his famed celibacy. Training SMERSH agents through the International Mothers' Help organisation, Jimmy schemes to use biological agents to make all women beautiful before ensuring that he becomes 'the big man' by eradicating all males taller than 4ft 6in.
HQ & QUIRKS: Dr Noah's headquarters are in an underground bunker deep beneath Casino Royale. When he kidnaps cousin Mata Bond (Joanna Pettet) in a giant spaceship, he brings her here in order to entrap his uncle. Jimmy is so intimidated by 007 that he can't speak in his presence (with Allen's lines at such moments being dubbed by veteran British actor, Valentine Dyall)
QUIPS: 'You can't shoot me! I have a very low threshold of death. My doctor says I can't have bullets enter my body at any time.'
SIDEKICKS: Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) - needing cash after embezzling SMERSH, he lures decoy Bond, Evelyn Tremble (Peter Sellers), to the casino to play baccarat; Mimi (Deborah Kerr) - the SMERSH agent who poses as Lady McTarry, but falls in love with 007; Buttercup (Angela Scoular), Eliza (Gabriella Licudi), Heather (Tracey Crisp), Peg (Elaine Taylor), and Meg (Alexandra Bastedo) - SMERSH operatives posing as M's daughters; Giovanna Goodthighs (Jacqueline Bisset) - SMERSH assassin who tries to kill Tremble; Polo (Ronnie Corbett) - the SMERSH contact at International Mothers' Help, who falls for Mata.
TRIVIA: In 1955, Ian Fleming sold the rights to Casino Royale to director/producer Gregory Ratoff, who wanted Susan Hayward to play Jane Bond. Talent agent Charles K. Feldman acquired the rights and sought to cast Cary Grant as Bond for director Howard Hawks. The success of Dr No kyboshed the project, however, and Feldman forged an uneasy alliance with Eon, as Ben Hecht, Joseph Heller, Billy Wilder, and Val Guest all took a tilt at the script. Welles and Allen wrote many of their own lines, so Sellers hired Terry Southern - with whom he had worked on Stanley Kubrick's Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) - to pen some zingers so that he didn't lose face.
You Only Live Twice (Lewis Gilbert, 1967)
![A still from James Bond: You Only Live Twice (1967)](https://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/film-stills/736245-27612-clp-1912.jpg)
BOND: Sean Connery
VILLAIN: Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence)
BACKSTORY: Ernst Stavro Blofeld was born in the German town of Gdingen to Polish/Greek parents. Following a brilliant academic career, he worked for the Polish government before enriching himself by aiding the Axis and the Allies during the Second World War. He used his ill-gotten gains to launch SPECTRE, where he adopted the moniker, Number One.
FIENDISH PLAN: Having been a bit-part puppetmaster stroking his blue-eyed white Persian cat in From Russia With Love and Thunderball, Blofeld emerges from the shadows to supervise a plot, sponsored by an unnamed Asian superpower, to provoke a war between the United States and the Soviet Union by stealing an orbiting spacecraft from each country.
HQ & QUIRKS: Blofeld's hideaway is secreted beneath a volcano on an island in the Sea of Japan. Boasting its own rocket base to house 'Bird One', the secret facility is also fitted with a self-destruct system, which suggests a pessimistic streak in Blofeld, who shares Largo's love of flesh-eating fish and punishes Helga Brandt (Karin Dor) for failing to kill Bond by pitching her into a pool of pirhanas.
QUIPS: 'I shall look forward personally to exterminating you, Mr Bond.'
SIDEKICKS: Osato (Teru Shimada) - SPECTRE operative and head of the Japanese chemical company who helps Blofeld capture NASA's Jupiter 16 spacecraft; Helga Brandt (Karin Dor) - SPECTRE assassin who poses as Osato's secretary and is sent to capture Bond aboard Blofeld's ship, the Ning-Po.
TRIVIA: Blofeld shares a birthday with Ian Fleming (28 May 1908) and a surname with Thomas Blofeld, a classmate of Fleming and the father of the former cricket commentator Henry Blofeld. Czech actor Jan Werich was originally cast, but the producers realised he was too genial and let it be known that he had been forced to withdraw through ill health before replacing him with Donald Pleasence.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Peter R. Hunt, 1969)
![A still from On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) With George Lazenby](https://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/film-stills/771283-28520-clp-1912.jpg)
BOND: George Lazenby
VILLAIN: Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas)
BACKSTORY: Blofeld's past remains unaltered, despite the switch of actor. However, with MI6 targeting him in Operation Bedlam, he seeks to alter his future by contacting Sir Hilary Bray (George Baker), a herald at the College of Arms, in an effort to claim the title Count Balthazar de Bleuchamp.
FIENDISH PLAN: Eager to ennoble himself and have his criminal record expunged, Blofeld hits upon the idea of holding the world's food chain to ransom. He selects a dozen women to be subliminally brainwashed into becoming 'angels of death', who will unleash a bacteriological warfare agent known as Virus Omega across the globe to render all livestock and cereal crops infertile, unless Blofeld's demands are met.
HQ & QUIRKS: Blofeld's base is the allergy research institute that he has built at the summit of Piz Gloria in the Swiss Alps. This was actually the world's first revolving mountain restaurant on Mount Schilthorn. Whereas, in the past, he has been content to send SPECTRE agents to destroy Bond, Blofeld gets his hands dirtier this time, as he starts an avalanche to stop 007 and Countess Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg) from escaping on skis. Demonstrating his talent at another winter sport, Blofeld flees his burning HQ on a bobsleigh, while he also shows off his driving skills in the most shocking Bond denouement of them all.
QUIPS: 'No one is coming to your rescue, Mr Bond. In a few short hours, the United Nations will receive a Yuletide greeting. The information that I now possess the scientific means to control, or to destroy, the economy of the whole world. People will have more important things to deal with than you.'
SIDEKICKS: Irma Bunt (Ilsa Steppat) - Blofeld's main henchwoman, who supervises the angels of death and nearly comes a cropper when a fleeing 007 leads her into a stock car race; Grunther (Yuri Borienko) - the thuggish security chief at Piz Gloria, who knocks Bond out and chases him downhill on skis; the Angels of Death - Ruby Bartlett (Angela Scoular); Australian angel (Anouska Hempel); Hungarian angel (Catherina von Schell); American angel (Dani Sheridan); Israeli angel (Helena Ronee); German angel (Ingrid Back); Irish angel (Jenny Hanley); English angel (Joanna Lumley); Scandinavian angel (Julie Ege); Chinese angel (Mona Chong); Jamaican angel (Sylvana Henriques); and Indian angel (Zaheera).
TRIVIA: Broccoli and Saltzman had intended making On Her Majesty's Secret Service as the fourth Bond movie, but Thunderball was rushed into production after the resolution of a long-running rights issue. A mild winter prevented shooting from taking place in 1966 and Eon moved on to You Only Live Twice, instead. When Connery announced his intention to quit the series, it was decided to hire Roger Moore to make The Man With the Golden Gun. But political instability in Cambodia prompted a postponement and Australian model George Lazenby found himself in 007's tuxedo after Moore signed up for a final series of The Saint (1962-69).
Diamonds Are Forever (Guy Hamilton, 1971)
![A still from James Bond: Diamonds Are Forever (1971)](https://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/film-stills/749087-27993-clp-1912.jpg)
BOND: Sean Connery
VILLAIN: Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray)
BACKSTORY: The pressure of being a supervillain seemed to be getting to Blofeld by this stage, as he invests in a superheated mud process to create lookalikes. When Bond climbs into the Whyte House, he finds himself confronted with two Blofelds, who use voice synthesizers to impersonate the American casino owner.
FIENDISH PLAN: Having caused havoc in diamond-smuggling circles by having the leading players bumped off, Blofeld reveals that he is stockpiling gems in order to create a laser satellite. Once launched, this would be able to knock out nuclear weapon installations in the US, USSR, and China and leave the world powerless to resist Blofeld's demands.
HQ & QUIRKS: Although he takes over the Whyte House while in Las Vegas, Blofeld's base is located on an oil rig off the coast of Baja California. Serviced by helicopters and mini-submarines, it's not easy to infiltrate and Bond employs a novel method of approaching his target. Blofeld is also prone to eccentric antics in this picture. The ubiquitous white cat had toddled down the stairs to announce the arrival of its master when Bond encountered the dopplegänger and it gets to ride in the back of the car when Blofeld dons a wig and a frock to lure Tiffany Case (Jill St John) into a trap. Anyone else reminded of Mrs Slocombe (Molly Sugden) from Are You Being Served? (1972-85) ?
QUIPS: 'As La Rochefoucauld observed, "Humility is the worst form of conceit." I do hold the winning hand. Why don't you let me take you on a little tour of our facilities?'
SIDEKICKS: Albert Wint (Bruce Glover) and Charles Kidd (Putter Smith) - the assassins Blofeld trusts to shake up the diamond community and rid him of 007 (and they keep trying right to the end). Their queerness has generated considerable controversy down the years; Professor Dr Metz (Joseph Furst) - the boffin and naive pacifist who creates the laser satellite, with its large diamond solar shield, in the hope of achieving world peace.
![A still from The Offence (1972)](https://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/film-stills/837256-30164-clp-1693.jpg)
TRIVIA: When Lazenby walked away after a single outing as 007, Broccoli and Saltzman considered Michael Gambon, Burt Reynolds, and Adam West for the role before signing John Gavin, who was still best known for having been Janet Leigh's lover in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). However, the studio felt Gavin wasn't a big enough name and capitulated to Connery's wage demands. He was even allowed to select two dream projects. Sidney Lumet's The Offence (1972) proved to be an unsettling classic. But the release of Roman Polanski's Macbeth (1971) meant that Connery never got to take a stab at the Scottish Play. Before being cast as Blofeld, Charles Gray had played Dikko Henderson, Connery's Japanese contact in You Only Live Twice.
Never Say Never Again (Irvin Kershner, 1983)
![A still from James Bond: Never Say Never Again (1983)](https://cdn-3.cinemaparadiso.co.uk/film-stills/439178-16193-clp-1912.jpg)
BOND: Sean Connery
VILLAIN: Maximillian Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer)
BACKSTORY: Seemingly unrelated to Emilio Largo, Maximilian Largo was born in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, in 1945. Renowned for his work for children's charities, this millionaire philanthropist has a double life as a SPECTRE agent, reporting to Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Max von Sydow). Among his potential plots is the destruction of the oil industry in the Middle East.
FIENDISH PLAN: Blofeld has entrusted Largo with an operation dubbed, 'The Tears of Allah', which turns around a pair of nuclear missiles stolen from RAF Swadley during a NATO exercise. As Blofeld informs the waiting world, one of the warheads will be detonated, possibly under the White House, unless SPECTRE receives £100 million.
HQ & QUIRKS: In addition to owning a super-yacht named 'The Flying Saucer', Largo also resides in a luxurious Moorish palace in Palmyra on coast of North Africa. It's here that Largo designs video games. Indeed, he challenges Bond to a power game called 'Domination', in which red and blue players seek to turn the map of the world their designated colour. To add a little extra spice, each conquered nation costs the loser a substantial sum of money and incurs an increasingly intense electric shock via the joystick.
QUIPS: 'So, do you lose as gracefully as you win?'
SIDEKICKS: Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) - Number 12 in SPECTRE, who uses heroin to control the USAF captain with access to the missiles. Having dispatched him, she tries to kill Bond in the Bahamas using remote-controlled sharks before coercing him into praising her sexual prowess in a memoir she unwisely allows him to write with one of Q's fountain pens; Lippe (Pat Roach) - a SPECTRE assassin who tries to murder 007 in the gym of the London health clinic that he was ordered to attend by M (Edward Fox) after being accused of getting old having failed a training exercise.
TRIVIA: Barbara Carrera received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. However, no one has ever earned an Oscar nod for their acting in a Bond movie. Nevertheless, in addition to Sean Connery ( The Untouchables, 1987), seven other performers who have starred in the Bond franchise have Academy Awards to their name: Christopher Walken ( The Deer Hunter, 1978), Judi Dench ( Shakespeare in Love, 1998), Benicio Del Toro ( Traffic, 2000), Halle Berry ( Monster's Ball, 2001), Javier Bardem ( No Country For Old Men, 2007); Christoph Waltz ( Inglourious Basterds, 2009 & Django Unchained, 2012), and Rami Malek ( Bohemian Rhapsody, 2018).