What Every Bond Villain Looks Like Today

Christoph Waltz's breakout role arrived in 2009, when he blew audiences away as SS officer Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. Waltz went on to secure major roles in movies like Django Unchained and eventually, 2015's Spectre. Waltz is the latest actor to play Ernst Stavro Blofeld, a recurring Bond villain played by five different actors over six decades. In this continuity, Blofeld is actually Bond's adoptive brother, who believes Bond supplanted his position as favored son. Blofeld is the head of the global criminal organization SPECTRE, which is secretly responsible for the events of the previous three films.

Waltz has continued to act since Spectre, having appeared in a wide variety of films including Alita: Battle Angel, The Legend of Tarzan and Downsizing. Waltz will reprise his role as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in 2020's Bond installment, No Time to Die.

Mathieu Amalric started acting in 1984's Favorites of the Moon, and began his career as a filmmaker one year later with 1985's Marre de cafe. His most notable performances pre-Bond are his roles in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Munich. In 2008, Amalric made his Bond debut as the villainous Dominic Greene in Quantum of Solace. Greene is an environmentalist entrepreneur who secretly works for the mysterious organization known as Quantum. This evil collective is buying up Bolivia's supply of fresh water, creating a monopoly that will make Greene exponentially richer at the expense of the Bolivian people.

Amalric has remained very active as an actor, appearing in movies like The Grand Budapest Hotel as well as French movies like La Loi de la jungle.

Stephens has enjoyed a robust career in acting since 1992. Pre-Bond, he gained acclaimed for his performances as Othello in 1992's Orlando and Jay Gatsby in the 2000 TV movie adaptation of The Great Gatsby. He assumed the role of Bond antagonist in Die Another Day, though his character, a North Korean colonel who illegally trades weapons for conflict diamonds, is initially played by Will Yun Lee. Bond seemingly kills the colonel, but the film later reveals that he survived, altered his appearance, and assumed the identity of Gustav Graves, a British billionaire. From there on out, Stephens takes the reigns of the character.

Stephens has remained very active since Die Another Day. Most notably, he's starred as Captain Flint in Black Sails and as John Robinson in the 2018 reimagining of Lost in Space. He has also continued performing on stage, and has even expanded into the worlds of radio dramas and audiobooks. Ironically, Stephens has actually voiced James Bond in a number of radio dramatizations of Ian Fleming's original novels. You can find them on the BBC Radio 4 website.

Welsh actor Jonathan Pryce started his career on the British stage of the 1970s. Prior to becoming a Bond villain, Pryce won two Tony Awards, one for his 1977 Broadway performance in Comedians, the other for his 1991 role in the musical Miss Saigon. In 1997, Pryce played the Bond villain Elliot Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies. Carver is a sociopathic media baron who plans to expand his empire into China. How will he do this? By inciting a war between China and the UK, eliminating the Chinese government and allowing a general to step in who will grant Carver exclusive rights to broadcast in China.

Pryce has enjoyed a number of stellar roles since Tomorrow Never Dies. He's earned particular acclaim for his performances as Pope Francis in The Two Popes, Weatherby Swann in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and the High Sparrow in Game of Thrones.

Robert Davi has enjoyed a rich acting career since the 1970s, appearing in such classics as The Goonies and Die Hard. 1989 saw Davi take on the role of Franz Sanchez in Licence to Kill. Sanchez is a powerful international drug lord who murders and bribes to get what he wants. He is also famed for his use of elaborate and terrifying forms of torture, which strike fear into the hearts of anyone who might betray him. Sanchez's master plan is quite simple, really: He wants to continue to sell drugs on a massive scale and corrupt or kill anyone who gets in the way. 

After playing a Bond villain, Davi has continued acting in a wide variety of projects including Predator 2, Stargate: Atlantis, Criminal Minds, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and The Expendables 3. Davi also enjoys a robust recording career, his album Davi Sings Sinatra: On The Road To Romance having received particular praise.

Prior to taking on Bond, Christopher Walken earned acclaim for his roles in classics like Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, and The Dead Zone. 1985 saw Walken play Max Zorin, the result of Nazi attempts to create a super soldier, in A View to a Kill. Having established a successful microchip business, Zorin plans to destroy his competitors in Silicon Valley by detonating bombs along the San Andreas fault line.

After playing Max Zorin, Walken has maintained a very active career. He's appeared in Batman Returns, Pulp Fiction, Antz, Sleepy Hollow, Catch Me If You Can, and many other notable films. Walken is also a frequent host of Saturday Night Live – you likely know him best in that capacity as Bruce Dickinson in the unforgettable sketch, "More Cowbell."

Michael Lonsdale has appeared in over 180 different films and television shows. However, his most famous role is likely still Bond villain Hugo Drax, from the 1979 film Moonraker. Drax is an extremely wealthy businessman who owns a company that builds space shuttles.Being rich and powerful has clearly gone to Drax's head, as he wants to wipe out humanity and restart society with a few selected humans. Using his spacecraft, he and his master race plan to orbit the planet until toxins kill everyone below.

Lonsdale continued to enjoy a rich acting career post-Drax. Notably, he won a Cesar Award for his performance as Luc in the 2010 film Of Gods and Men, and appeared in the 2016 Belgian-French drama film The First, the Last. His final film credit, also from that year, came opposite Willem Dafoe in Sculpt.

Lonsdale passed away in September 2020 at the age of 87. The cause of his death was not immediately made public, but his time as Drax was memorialized by peers and fans alike.

In the upcoming Bond film No Time to Die, the villainous Safin will be played by Rami Malek. Of this bad guy, producer Barbara Broccoli has said, "He is really the supervillain. He's the one that really gets under Bond's skin. He's a nasty piece of work." Malek is best known for playing protagonist Elliot Alderson in the television series Mr. Robot and Freddie Mercury in the film Bohemian Rhapsody. He's been active since the early 2000s, playing small roles in shows like 24, Gilmore Girls, The Legend of Korra, and films like Night at the Museum. Mr. Robot was the launchpad he needed, and it appears Malek will only continue to climb higher in Hollywood. This isn't a surprise to anyone who's had the pleasure of enjoying his work already  — he's knocking it out of the park, and we're looking forward to seeing him in this upcoming Bond film.

French actor Louis Jourdan gained major acclaim for playing suave roles in French and American films, working closely with big names like Alfred Hitchcock and Frank Sinatra. In 1983, Jourdan played the villainous Kamal Khan in Octopussy. Khan, an exiled Afghan prince, is in league with General Orlov, who is planning to expand Soviet control in Europe. Orlov steals priceless Russian treasures and gives them to Khan, who then smuggles them into the West to sell at auction. Matters become considerably more serious when Orlov and Khan smuggle an atomic bomb into West Germany.

After playing a Bond villain, Jourdan continued acting in film and television until his retirement in 1992. His final role in film was as Philippe in 1992's Year of the Comet. In 2015, Jourdan passed away at the age of 93.

Curd Jürgens' filmography is extensive. Before his Bond days, he played Von Stolberg in The Enemy Below and General Gunther Blumentritt in The Longest Day. Then, in 1977, Jürgens took up the Bond villain mantle in The Spy Who Loved Me, playing the villain Karl Stromberg. Stromberg is obsessed with the ocean, owning a shipping firm and even living in a submersible city called Atlantis. Stomberg's evil plan is to start a nuclear war, thus allowing him to restart human civilization underwater.

Jürgens continued acting after his role in The Spy Who Loved Me, having roles in the sci-fi sports drama Goldengirl and the war film Breakthrough. His last role was General Vladimir in the BBC miniseries Smiley's People. He passed away in 1982, at the age of 66.

Baron Samedi, played by Geoffrey Holder, is one of the most creative bad guys in the Bond franchise. Appearing in 1973's Live and Let Die, he's a witch doctor of the fictional Caribbean island of San Monique who works for the main villain, Dr. Kananga. Samedi terrifies the locals with human sacrifices and regularly reports on all of the island's activity to Dr. Kananga. He is also, apparently, immortal — he appears at the end of the film, despite Bond having killed him previously.

Holder enjoyed a stellar career as an actor, dancer, musician, and artist, having already been a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Ballet before his film career began in 1957. He directed several Broadway productions, including The Wiz, for which he won two Tony Awards. He also appeared in 7 Up commercials as a spokesman in the 1970s and 1980s and narrated 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Holder passed away in 2014 at the age of 84.

Born Aristotelis Savalas, Telly Savalas gained fame for roles in films like The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Dirty Dozen, and Birdman of Alcatraz. Then, in 1969, Savalas portrayed Ernst Stavro Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Blofeld is threatening the world yet again in this movie, this time through biological warfare. He brainwashes women, putting them into a hypnotic state in which they distribute bacterial agents capable of devastating the world's agriculture. After Bond foils his plans, Blofeld kills Bond's wife, Tracy, which furthers the feud between the two epic rivals.

Savalas continued to play big roles post-Blofeld, including starring in the popular television series Kojak. Savalas remained active as an actor right up until his death in 1994, at the age of 72.

Adolfo Celi specialized in playing villains with a cosmopolitan edge. It's no surprise, then, that he played Emilio Largo in Thunderball with such panache. Largo's evil plan is to steal warheads and blackmail NATO into paying him a large sum of money, lest he start destroying major cities.

Celi went on to act in numerous roles post-Largo, mostly in Italian cinema. He gave particularly impressive performances as Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici in The Agony and the Ecstasy and as Le Colonel MacBibenbrook in King of Hearts. He passed away in 1986 at the age of 63, hours before the premiere of I Misteri di Pietroburgo, which he starred in and directed.

Even though he isn't the main villain of the movie, Oddjob is one of the most memorable parts of Goldfinger. Played by Harold Sakata, his weapon of choice is his hat, which has a razor-sharp steel rim. Oddjob is terrifyingly good at assassinating victims by hurling his hat at high speed.

Sakata had a successful weightlifting career outside of acting, even winning a silver medal for the United States in the 1948 Summer Olympics. He had also worked as a professional wrestler under the name Tosh Togo, a career he continued into the 1970s. Though Oddjob was Sakata's first role as an actor, it definitely wasn't his last. He went on to perform in productions like Hawaii Five-0, Impulse and Dimension 5. Sakata occasionally spoofed his role as Oddjob in later years, most prominently by appearing in a series of Vicks cough syrup commercials. He passed away in 1982 at the age of 62.

Joseph Wiseman had the honor of playing the first Bond villain, Julius No, in 1962's Dr. No. Julius No has a killer outfit, a complex backstory, and an epic underground lair, from where he plans to disrupt American space launches in the hopes of starting a war between the Russians and Americans. Like so many Bond villains who would follow him, No also has a unique physical trait — prosthetic metal hands.

Wiseman continued to act after his turn as Dr. No, appearing in The Twilight Zone, Magnum, P.I., and MacGyver. He enjoyed a particularly distinguished theater career, appearing in a wide variety of productions including Antony and Cleopatra, The Lark, and Judgment at Nuremberg. His final appearance was on Law & Order. Wiseman passed away in 2009, at the age of 91.