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Ernst Stavro Blofeld
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (November 2007) |
| James Bond character | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Ernst Stavro Blofeld | |
| Gender | Male |
| Role | Villain |
| Affiliation | SPECTRE (Self-employed) |
| Status | Deceased Unknown (films reboot) |
| Portrayed by | Anthony Dawson (uncredited) Eric Pohlmann |
Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional supervillain from the James Bond universe created by Ian Fleming. An evil genius, he is the archenemy of the British Secret Service agent James Bond and head of the global criminal organization SPECTRE with aspirations of world domination. His quest for global supremacy is based around terrorism, revenge and extortion.
Blofeld appears or is heard in six official James Bond films: From Russia with Love (1963), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), On Her Majesty's Secret Service, (1969) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and his final appearance is the pre-title teaser of For Your Eyes Only. He also appears in Never Say Never Again, the 1983 remake of Thunderball, which makes him the most persistent and arguably greatest of James Bond's enemies.
Blofeld is best known as a bald villain, but due to the nature of his evil scheming he is able to frequently invent new disguises or change his physical appearances from Bond, even more so than in the novels. In the films, Blofeld almost always appears with a white Persian cat. It was also briefly a convention of the Bond films not to show Blofeld's face: only a closeup of him stroking his cat. This convention was later broken in You Only Live Twice and subsequent films.
Blofeld, with his trademark cat, was also mimicked in the animated series Inspector Gadget and DangerMouse (Baron Greenback, with white caterpillar), and spoofed in Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery (as Dr Evil), Zoolander (Mugatu, with poodle), Mr. India (Mogambo) and Spice World (The Chief, with changing pets).
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Fleming details Blofeld's background in the novel Thunderball, though none of his past is ever revealed in the Bond films. According to the novel,a[›] Blofeld was born on May 28, 1908b[›] to a German father and a Greek mother in Gdynia.c[›] After World War I, he became a Polish national. Blofeld attended the University of Warsaw where he studied economics and political history, and then the Warsaw University of Technology to study engineering and radionics. He then took a communication position at the Polish Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs, and used his position for buying and selling stocks at the Warsaw Stock Exchange.[1]
Foreseeing World War II, Blofeld made copies of top-secret wires and sold them to Nazi Germany. Before the German invasion of Poland in 1939, he destroyed all records of his existence, then moved to Turkey, where he worked for Turkish radio and set up an intelligence organisation. During the war, he sold information to both sides. After the defeat of Erwin Rommel, he decided to back the Allied war effort; ironically, he was awarded numerous medals by the Allied powers after the war's end. Blofeld then temporarily moved to South America before founding SPECTRE.
In the John Gardner novel For Special Services, it is revealed that Blofeld had a daughter, Nena Blofeld, with a French Mistress.
Blofeld makes three appearances in the Ian Fleming novels. He first appears in a minor role as the leader of SPECTRE in the 1961 novel Thunderball. The plot that he formulates is carried out by his henchman Emilio Largo. Blofeld is described physically as a massive man, once a bodybuilder but having gone to fat; he has violet-scented breath from chewing capsules.
Blofeld is absent from the next book, The Spy Who Loved Me, though its events take place while Bond is searching for Blofeld in North America. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963) Bond learns that Blofeld – having radically altered his appearance – is in hiding in Switzerland under the guise of Comte de Bleuville, and defeats his plans to destroy Britain's agricultural economy. In the final sequence of the novel, Blofeld gets revenge by murdering Bond's new wife, Tracy.
In You Only Live Twice published in 1964 Blofeld returns and is found by Bond (more by accident than by design) to be in hiding in Japan under the alias Dr Guntram Shatterhand. Bond strangles him to death at the end of the novel, making it the villain's last appearance. In both OHMSS and You Only Live Twice, he is aided in his schemes by Irma Bunt, who is clearly his lover in the latter and posing as Shatterhand's wife. Bond either kills or incapacitates her here in their Japanese castle base, before it blows up.
In the film series Blofeld first appears in From Russia with Love, then in Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds are Forever, and For Your Eyes Only. In his first two instances, he is a perceived, but physically unseen character. In the third, fourth, and fifth appearances, he is the formal antagonist, and, in the sixth and final appearance, in the For Your Eyes Only teaser, he is an anonymous, bald villain trying to kill the hero. In the last instance, he is anonymous because of the legal dispute, between Kevin McClory and EON Productions, over the Thunderball copyrights; Blofeld remains anonymous, unmentioned, and unlisted in the film’s end credits.[2]
As a villain, Blofeld’s appearance and personality change according to the personifying actor. He has a full head of black hair in From Russia With Love and Thunderball; a facial dueling scar in You Only Live Twice; no scar or earlobes in On Her Majesty's Secret Service; and silver-grey hair in Diamonds Are Forever. This metamorphosing is per Ian Fleming’s literary portrayal of a chameleon criminal striving to go unnoticed by SIS.
| Image | Year | Film series | Actor/Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
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1963 | From Russia with Love | Anthony Dawson, person, Eric Pohlmann, voice; both uncredited as only hands and back of head are seen; the end credits list a question mark for the actor’s name. |
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1965 | Thunderball | Anthony Dawson, person, Eric Pohlmann, voice (though other sources claim that it is Joseph Wiseman aka Doctor No[3]); both uncredited as only hands are shown; end credits do not list Blofeld. |
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1967 | You Only Live Twice | Donald Pleasence |
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1969 | On Her Majesty’s Secret Service | Telly Savalas |
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1971 | Diamonds Are Forever | Charles Gray |
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1981 | For Your Eyes Only | John Hollis, person, Robert Rietty, voice; both uncredited; Blofeld’s face is not seen close up. |
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1983 | Never Say Never Again (non-EON) |
Max von Sydow |
A Czech actor Jan Werich was originally cast by producer Harry Saltzman to play Blofeld in You Only Live Twice. Upon arriving at the Pinewood set, both producer Albert R. Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert felt that he was a bad choice, resembling a "poor, benevolent Santa Claus". Nonetheless, in an attempt to make the casting work, Gilbert continued filming. After five days, both Gilbert and Broccoli determined that Werich wasn't menacing enough, and recast Donald Pleasence in the role — the official excuse being that Werich was ill [4]
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- Blofeld appears in the 2004 game GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, this time with the likeness of Donald Pleasence.
Many of the characteristics of Blofeld have become clichés of supervillains in popular fiction, representing the stock character of Blofeld.
The appearance of Donald Pleasence as Blofeld in You Only Live Twice inspired that of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers films down to his penchant for referring to henchmen by number designations, facial scar, and the Persian cat called "Mr. Bigglesworth". Blofeld himself in two films (You Only Live Twice and Diamonds are Forever) wears a similar Nehru jacket. The look of Blofeld was also imitated by Jim Backus in Gilligan's Island episode 79, enitled "The Invasion", in which Backus plays a character named Mr. Evil in Gilligan's dream.
In the Super Mario Bros. Super Show episode "On Her Majesty's Sewer Service," the villain Koopfinger (himself a spoof of another Bond villain, Goldfinger) strokes a porcupo in imitation of Blofeld.[5]
In the first season of the Pokémon TV series, Giovanni, the leader of the Team Rocket, is depicted like Blofeld, hiding in the shadow with a Persian on his lap.[6][7] In Donkey Kong 64, K. Rool was shown stroking a pet Klaptrap.
In the Police Squad! episode "Rendezvous at Big Gulch", the leader of the mobsters is shown stroking a cat. His face, much like Blofeld, is not seen until he bends low, an obvious parody of the James Bond movies, in which Blofeld's face is initially never shown.
The enemy of the cartoon hero Dangermouse, Baron Greenback, is always seen with a fluffy white caterpillar pet, Nero, a parody of the Persian cat.
In the game Fur Fighters, the main villain is a parody of Blofeld's cat.
In The Stink Files, a series of children's books by Jennifer L. Holm about a cat who is a spy, the main character's arch-nemesis, Macavity, is a parody of the white Persian cat.
Savalas's portrayal of Blofeld was Clancy Brown's inspiration for his characterisation of Lex Luthor in Superman: The Animated Series. He got the role because he reminded the series creator, Bruce Timm, of Savalas's Blofeld, whom Timm saw as a "cultured thug".
In an interview with TV Guide, Julian Sands mentions Pleasance's portrayal of Blofeld as one the inspirations for his portrayal of Russian terrorist Vladimir Bierko on the fifth season of 24.
Vivendi Universal's PC game Evil Genius features a title character named Maximilian with a strong resemblance to Blofeld. In the game, the player must build a secret lair on a remote island and fend off the attacks of superagents while pulling off complex international capers in an ultimate bid for world domination.
The Animaniacs episode "From Burbank with Love" features a villain named Blowfinger, a cross between Blofeld and Auric Goldfinger.[8]
The filming style of not revealing Blofeld's face and his stroking of his cat has inspired a number of imitators, most notably the main villain of Inspector Gadget, Dr. Claw, and his crime syndicate, M.A.D.
The Powerpuff Girls episode "Cat Man Do" features a faceless villain stroking a white Persian cat. The girls thwart the villain's plan and rescue the cat and bring it back to their home. However, it turns out that the cat is the real mastermind who can hypnotize any man to do his evil bidding.[9]
In the anime series Dragon Ball, Red Leader, the commander of the Red Ribbon Army, has his face hidden in his first appearances. He has a strange cat-like animal on his lap in reference to Blofeld, and conducts operations from a hidden base sequestered in the Alps, similar to On Her Majesty's Secret Service. He orders the murder of a henchman that fails a mission, and he wears an eyepatch, like Largo.
The Spice Girls' movie, Spice World, features a character called the Chief, who is fashioned after Blofeld. He is sometimes only heard, sometimes only shown holding a different kind of animal (a rabbit, a pit, a cat, etc.), until finally it is shown that he is being played by Roger Moore. He is usually giving Richard E. Grant's character odd advice in the form of cryptic philosophical babble.
The second season of the TV series Martial Law features an evil organisation known as Scorpio, which bore more than a passing resemblance to SPECTRE. It was headed by a mysterious recurring villain known only as The One (a possible reference to Blofeld's "Number One" SPECTRE codename) who, like Blofeld, was only seen in shadow (when he was shown at all) until the final episode.
The Season 7 episode of The Simpsons, "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular", introduces a cut scene where Homer is a blackjack dealer in a game between Mr Bont and his enemies Oddjob, Blofeld and Jaws.
In the Scrubs episode "My White Whale", Dr Cox is petting a doll white cat to intimidate the pediatrician that he wants to take care of his son Jack.
The TV comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience did a sketch on life at school. It was mentioned in the sketch towards the audience that at school there was always one teacher you were scared of, but did not know why. The sketch then showed someone dressed as Blofeld telling a schoolboy off for not doing his homework. He presses a button on his chair and the boy explodes.
The videogame series Timesplitters feature a villain by the name of Khallos, whose appearance and manner of speech resemble Blofeld. He is also shown stroking a mechanical cat, whom the player can eventually operate in Timesplitters: Future Perfect. The character Doctor Neo Cortex in the Crash Bandicoot vidoe game series is also based on the stereotype of the balding evil genius and scientist with aspirations of world domination.
In the webcomic Kung Fu Rabbit, the antagonist is a shadowy rabbit figure known only as the Director who sits in a high backed chair in the shadows and strokes his pet tortoise while directing the global domination efforts of his crime syndicate H.A.R.E.
In the film Cats and Dogs the villain is a cat called Mr Tinkles who is an imitation of Blofeld's cat.
^ a: It is commonly believed that the name Blofeld was inspired by the English cricket commentator Henry Blofeld's father, with whom Fleming went to school. The truth, however, is that he was named after 'Ernst Blofeld', the father of the author John Blofeld with whom Fleming was associated through Club membership. Henry and John were cousins of some degree.
^ b: This is also Ian Fleming's birthday
^ c: At the time of Blofeld's birth, Gdynia (Poland), was a small village. The city of Gdynia was built almost from scratch in the 1920s in a grand-scale engineering project already under Polish authority. Construction of the city took less than a decade. This detail doesn't make the biography impossible—just less convincing.
- ^ The Bond Film Informant: Ernst Stavro Blofeld
- ^ MovieDeaths.com: Ernst Stavro Blofeld
- ^ The Bond Files by Andy Lane and Paul Simpson
- ^ Production Staff. Inside You Only Live Twice: An Original Documentary [Television]. MGM Home Entertainment Inc.
- ^ "On Her Majesty's Sewer Service". Super Mario Bros. Super Show!.
- ^ "Battle Aboard the S. S. Anne". Pokémon (anime). No. 15, season 1.
- ^ "The Island of Giant Pokémon". Pokémon (anime). No. 17, season 1.
- ^ "From Burbank With Love". Animaniacs.
- ^ "Cat Man Do". The Powerpuff Girls.