Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray)
Stats
Ernst Stavro Blofeld played by Charles Gray
Born in Bournemouth, England on 29th August 1928
Died 7th March 2000
Starred In Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Profile
The fourth actor to play the role of Blofeld, the pre-title sequence is concerned with Bond killing Blofeld for the death of his wife, Teresa Di Vicenzo. After Bond kills who he thinks is Blofeld (very easily), he encounters the real Blofeld much later in the film who has stolen the identity of Willard Whyte.
Blofeld sets into operation a complex diamond smuggling chain through many contacts sending diamonds from Africa, through Europe, to America. After constructing and launching a satellite into space, Blofeld threatens to destroy Washington DC using his diamond laser satellite unless his demands for money are met. Bond manages to foil Blofelds plan by sending his escape bathosub crashing into the control centre, although the fate of Blofeld himself remained uncertain.
About
Charles Gray portrays the least convincing Blofeld in the series. Blofeld is no longer menacing like played by Donald Pleasance, he has charm like Telly Savalas, but is now very cheesy.
Letting all his henchmen do the work for him, Blofeld becomes disappointingly very weak when he fights Bond personally. Even the SPECTRE agents that surround Blofeld seem uninspired and second grade compared to that of You Only Live Twice or On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The final nail in the coffin has to be Blofeld, the head of SPECTRE, dressing in drag. All creditability to the character that employed great classic villains like Dr No, Rosa Klebb and Emilio Largo is lost. While Charles Gray is a good actor, the character of Dikko Henderson in You Only Live Twice is much better. §
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