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Agreed. His more physical Blofeld was more Fleming. Grey was terrible.
Updated:
I agree with pretty much everything.
That said, I did like Christoph Waltz's Blofeld, too. Give him a little more expansion and make him physically threatening, he might end up being my favourite Blofeld.
Von Sydow should have been in the EON films.
Pleasance was just not right. I liked the scar but he just sat there looking. For such an iconic villain, the character was not well served in YOLT, hench the change for OHMSS
Gray was the worst. He acted like Noel Coward and walked around like a dainty. And the drag outfit was just the end for me. Matter of fact DAF is the most campy of all the Bond films...
"Oh poor fellow...he was restless too. Every year dozens of amateur climbers wind up in the same predicament. A kind of...waxworks show for morbid tourists. (tut tut tut) dear dear me"
Plus he's got a deformed finger. Something I can personally identify with.
I don't think it's Wiseman, but I wished he'd played Blofeld once. Not against Connery that would have been too distracting but say in OHMSS or against Moore circa TSWLM had they kept the rights to the character.
2. Savalas
3. Pleasance
4. Dawson/Pohlmann/Wiseman
5. Von Sydow
6. Hollis/Rietty
7. Gray
1. Savalas
2. Waltz
3. Pleasence
And the trio Dawson/Pohlmann/Wiseman had huge menace! The unseen ones always sounded so dangerous criminal masterminds!
Von Sydow was just a wasted opportunity. He could´ve been a true force.
Faceless Blofeld remains my favourite because of the menacing mystery surrounding the character.
2. Telly Savalas
Great screen presence, fantastic voice, physically Bond's equal. Clearly my favourite face of Bond's arch nemesis.
3. Donald Pleasence
A bit cartoonish but an iconic performance nevertheless. Loved the line: "Kill Bond, now".
4. Charles Gray
Pity about the drag scene. I actually liked his weird pseudo-thespian wit. Fits perfectly for the nonsense that was DAF.
5. John Hollis/Robert Rietty
It's my favourite part of FYEO and I love the delicatessen line, this guy is more memorable than any of the other foes in this movie.
6. Christoph Waltz
Fantastic actor but not in the same league as the classic ones.
7. Max von Sydow
Same goes for our Swedish friend. Brilliant actor, but badly written part ruins it for him. He's more Father Christmas than Blofeld.
@GoldenGun The voice does sound different to me in Thunderball than in FRWL, but I believe this is because Blofeld is using some sort of intercom systems in Thunderball so the voice was tweaked slightly to give this impression.
I suppose that it's kind of like what they did with Dr. No's voice when we first hear him speak to Professor Dent. It's the "voice of doom" if you will.
1. "#1" in FRWL (Eric Pohlmann/Anthony Dawson). This "appearance" remains my favorite. I love the parallel between the plot and the Japanese fighting fish and Blofeld is expertly handled in this entry IMO. He is a constant malevolent force throughout the film and the decision not to show his face in the film adds to the mystique of the character.
2. "#1" in Thunderball
My second favorite "appearance" of the character. The calm and calculated way in which he publicly executes an embezzling member of SPECTRE is a great way of showing once again the degree of power that Blofeld has. Pohlmann's version of Blofeld really feels like M's evil counterpart more to me than any other version of the character. The way one of the SPECTRE members sweats it out in that scene (similar to a scene with Rosa Klebb in FRWL) also gives the impression that Blofeld is a force to be reckoned with. The reason this is second is that Blofeld is really only in the first half of this movie and by the time it ends I have usually forgotten about him. Regardless, both the Eric Pohlmann/Anthony Dawson Blofeld's top my list.
3. Donald Pleasance/Telly Savalas/Charles Gray/John Hollis & Robert Rietty/Christoph Waltz
I sat here trying to rank these and realized that I have nitpicks with all of them but also love things about all of them and I couldn't pick one over the others.
4. Max Von Sydow in NSNA
Jan Werich was originally Blofeld in YOLT. Some reports say he returned home because he was ill but Lewis Gilbert claims he wasn't working out and looked too much to him like Father Christmas--this is my beef with Max Von Sydow. I just find Max Von Sydow too amiable as Blofeld and while there are moments where I definitely felt that way about Christoph Waltz's Blofeld, he at least had moments where I found him at least a tad unsettling. I like Max Von Sydow in other films, but I think he would have worked better as a character like Kristatos in FYEO.