Julius No
('Agent 007 against Dr. No', 1962)
He was the first and for that alone, he deserves a place of honor in the pantheon of bad Bondians. The son of a German Methodist missionary and a Chinese girl from a good family, he is a mad textbook doctor, with a privileged brain inclined to evil, an inordinate Napoleon complex, bionic hands of prodigious (if somewhat clumsy) strength, and a plan delusional to plunge the world into chaos. Canadian actor Joseph Wiseman played him with distinction after the first performer considered for the role, playwright, and composer Noël Coward (a personal friend of Ian Fleming's), turned down the offer shouting "No, no, no!".
Donald 'Red' Grant
('From Russia with love, 1963)
Before he set out to hunt down killer sharks in Jaws, Robert Shaw ushered in the fecund line of dyed-blonde Bond foes (the list is singularly long). Grant is not a megalomaniac genius with apocalyptic plans, but a deadly hitman specifically trained to take down 007. He almost succeeds aboard the Orient Express, where the hero and villain engage in a violent fight that took three weeks to shoot and that still continues today. , six decades later, is remembered as one of the most tense and memorable moments in the entire franchise (almost as much as the appearance of Shaw dressed in a very skimpy towel).
Auric Goldfinger
('Goldfinger', 1964)
The perfect embodiment of the detestable villain. Here there are no affronts from the past to avenge or personal conflicts to repair; Goldfinger is simply a greedy billionaire suspiciously fascinated by Nazi gold and a keen golfer who has no qualms about detonating an atomic bomb for the sole purpose of making himself even richer. Writer Ian Fleming gave him the surname of the architect of his Hampstead home (a twisted form of homage) and producers Saltzman and Broccoli cast German actor Gert Frobe in the role after seeing him play a sinister killer of girls in the film. The bait, by Ladislao Vajda.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
(Various titles)
The most stubborn of Bond's enemies are also the type who defined the aesthetic paradigm of the evil genius with a desire for world domination: a face disfigured by a scar, a Maoist-style uniform, and a white cat in his lap. The supreme head of the criminal organization SPECTER (Special Executive for Counterintelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion), he has appeared on screen with the faces of Donald Pleasance (You only live twice), Telly Savalas (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), Charles Gray (Diamonds Forever) and Christoph Waltz (SPECTER and No Time to Die) and has received mentions in at least five other films.
Francisco Scaramanga
('The Man with the Golden Gun, 1974)
The greatest villain with three nipples in history is a highly sought-after international hitman who became a skilled marksman in the traveling circus where he was born (his mother was a snake charmer) and who lives in seclusion on a remote private island with a self-sufficient solar power plant. His obsession with ending Bond in a gun duel will end up losing him. Christopher Lee (Ian Fleming's cousin in real life) seems to have a great time playing the character from the fine line between serious camp and pure jokes. Curiosity: in the novel, the guy has Catalan origin.
'Shark'
('The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977 and 'Moonraker', 1979)
Acromegalic Richard Kiel put his massive physique at the service of this brutal hitman of few words (actually, none) whose brain activity seems to be reduced to a single thought: kill Bond. To do this, he uses enormous strength and terrifying orthodontics. His impressive presence in The Spy Who Loved Me captivated the audience to such an extent that the producers of the franchise decided to reward him with a second appearance in Moonraker, already turned into a comic book villain who ends up allying with the archenemy 007 after straightening his life with the help of his laconic girlfriend Dolly.
