The James Bond films are notable for their memorably despicable villains and henchmen. From Le Chiffre's encounter with Bond in the original Casino Royale novel in 1953 to Dominic Greene's attempt to gain a monopoly over Bolivia's natural resources in the 2008 film, Quantum of Solace, Bond's foes have been one of the most important reasons for the book and film series' continued popularity.
Dr. No (1962)
Dr. Julius No
Actress: Joseph Wiseman
Dr. No is a brilliant scientist with an implied Napoleon complex, a self-described "unwanted child of a German missionary and a Chinese girl of a good family". He later "became treasurer of the most powerful criminal society in China", in this case, the Tongs. He then "escaped to America with $10,000,000" of Tong gold bullion. He specialized in atomic energy, which cost him both of his hands, which were replaced with crude bionic ones that were made out of either iron or steel. No's metal hands apparently had great strength (he could crush a stone figurine into powder), but were seriously lacking in manual dexterity.
From Russia with Love (1963)
Rosa Klebb
Actress: Lotte Lenya
Colonel Klebb is a high ranking member of the feared Russian counter-intelligence agency SMERSH, where she serves as the supervisor of Department II (operations and executions). She has a reputation for overseeing the interrogations of enemy agents in which, after exacting various methods of torture on the target, she speaks to them in a warm and motherly tone in an unusual and apparently effective method of extracting necessary information.
Goldfinger (1964)
Auric Goldfinger
Actress: Gert Fröbe
Goldfinger is a strange millionaire with an obsession for gold. His plan is to blow a nuclear bomb in Ft. Knox to devalue US gold and increase the worth of his own.
Thunderball (1965)
Emilio Largo
Actress: Adolfo Celi
SPECTRE's number two and one of their best agents, Largo hijacks two nuclear missiles in Thunderball and threatens to launch them if the US won't pay ransom. Largo is a very ruthless man, and goes as far as torturing his own mistress when he finds her untrustworthy.
You Only Live Twice (1967)
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Actress: Donald Pleasence
For appearing in a total of seven Bond movies, SPECTRE head Blofeld is probably the most famous Bond villain ever. The cat-loving madman first pitted against Bond in From Russia With Love although we didn't see his face; It wasn't until 1967 that the producers decided to reveal his face in You Only Live Twice.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Actress: Telly Savalas
Blofeld reveals his face in 1969's OHMSS. Bond accompanies Blofeld in his Swiss Alps headquarters, where his plans for the production of a super-human race would be carried out.
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Actress: Charles Gray
Charles Gray returns to the Bond series after playing Bond's contact in You Only Live Twice. In Diamonds Are Forever, Blofeld stockpiles diamonds to make a laser satellite capable of destroying targets on earth. Gustav Graves' plan for world domincation to Die Another Day is very similar to this plan.
Live and Let Die (1973)
Dr. Kananga (aka Mr. Big)
Actress: Yaphet Kotto
Mr. Big is a business man and owner of a chain of restaurants in New York City and New Orleans called "Fillet of Soul". Big is also the head of one of the most vicious street gangs in Harlem. On the fictional tiny island of San Monique, Big is known by his alter ego Dr. Kananga. Kananga is the de facto dictator of the island and thus has certain diplomatic immunities in the United States easily allowing him to smuggle drugs into the country. Kanaga is named after the real-life owner of the crocodile farm, who was also the stunt man who jumped along the crocodiles backs.
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Fransisco Scaramanga
Actress: Christopher Lee
Francisco is a high-priced assassin, supposedly the best in the world, charging one million dollars per kill. He's best known for being "The man with the golden gun", after his weapon of choice. All of Scaramanga's dealings go through his henchman Nick Nack, which allows Scaramanga to be anonymous. Francisco Scaramanga was a British national born in a traveling circus. His father was the ringmaster, a former Cuban national and his mother was the snake charmer.
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Karl Stromberg
Actress: Curt Jürgens
The webbed-fingered Karl Stromberg is a successful self-employed businessman as head of his own shipping firm. Stromberg's obsession and passion is the ocean where he lives in his palace, named Atlantis, that could submerge itself underwater so as not to be seen or detected. Stromberg also owns a huge tanker, named Liparus, that serves as his headquarters away from Atlantis. Aboard the tanker he has a small army of soldiers clad in orange jumpsuits.
Moonraker (1979)
Hugo Drax
Actress: Michael Lonsdale
Hugo Drax is a billionaireliving in California in a château that was imported brick-by-brick from France. He owns Drax Industries, which constructs space shuttles. In addition, Drax supposedly owns the Eiffel Tower, but apparently couldn't export it from France because they wouldn't issue him an export permit. Drax portrays himself as an accomplished pianist.
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Aris Kristatos
Actress: Julian Glover
A smuggler and a thief, Kristatos earned a medal during the war when he was actually serving as a double agent. In For Your Eyes Only, Kristatos is again working for the Soviets, trying to obtain the ATAC tracking system before the British. He also tries to manipulate Bond to kill his competitor, Columbo.
Octopussy (1983)
Kamal Khan
Actress: Louis Jourdan
Khan is a suave exiled Afghan prince living in India in the Monsoon Palace. He has a penchant for fine food and liquor, priceless jewels, and atomic weaponry. In the film, he associates with the power-crazed General Orlov in an attempt to unleash nuclear holocaust in Western Europe, by planning to detonate a nuclear bomb inside a US airbase, using Octopussy's Circus as a cover.
General Orlov
Actress: Steven Berkoff
General Orlov is an aggressive, hot-tempered, power crazed Communist hardliner who wants the Soviet Union to invade Western Europe. While Orlov tries to convince the Kremlin leaders to attack Europe, the majority want to make peace with the West. This leads to the partnership with Kamal Khan.
A View to a Kill (1985)
Max Zorin
Actress: Christopher Walken
Zorin is an ex-KGB psychopath who plans to monopolize the microchip industry by destroying Silicon Valley through a tremendous earthquake. Zorin's interests include racing horses, which leads Bond to find out his scheme.
The Living Daylights (1987)
Brad Whitaker
Actress: Joe Don Baker
Brad Whitaker is an international black market arms dealer from the U.S. He is fascinated by war, but his actual military career is a failure, so he turns to arms dealing to organize his own personal military force. Expelled from West Point for cheating, he spends a short stint as a mercenary in the Belgian Congo before working with various criminal organizations to help finance his first arms deals. He resides in Tangier, Morocco. He loves military history, and it is implied that he Wargames various historical conflicts using automated miniature figures and effects. Perhaps the most disturbing thing about this collection is that all representations of these "surgeons" are sculpted to resemble Whitaker himself, which is highly noticeable when Whitaker hides among the statues waiting for Pushkin to visit.
General Georgi Koskov
Actress: Jeroen Krabbé
Koskov is a deceitful, sociopathic Soviet general in business for himself, who carefully plays both sides of the Cold War. Initially, Koskov gives the impression of a somewhat anxious pawn in the battle between the Soviet Union and the West, when he is, in reality, a mastermind using all means to his own advantage. He is prepared to dote on his mistress and give her all manner of expensive gifts, but when necessary will easily sign her death warrant.
Licence to Kill (1989)
Franz Sanchez
Actress: Robert Davi
An international drug lord, Sanchez uses TV envangelism to sell heroin. After his escape from jail, he has Felix Leiter maimed, angering Bond and triggering his personal vendetta against him. In spite of his illegal business, Sanchez is very trusting and even allows Bond into his organization.
GoldenEye (1995)
Alec Trevelyan
Actress: Sean Bean
revelyan is a British spy turned into a Russian mafia head. Once working for MI6 as agent 006, he defected to a life of crime during a mission with 007 in a Russian nerve gas factory. Nine years later he masterminds a villainous plan to rob and then destroy London with the GoldenEye satellite under the name Janus.
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Elliot Carver
Actress: Jonathan Pryce
Carver is a media mogul who wants to start World War III for better ratings and exclusive stories in his Tomorrow newspaper. Capable to make and break people and governments with a single story, Carver's scheme involves manipulations of war tactics using his stealth ship to start a war.
The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Renard
Actress: Robert Carlyle
Renard was trained by the KGB until he was expelled due to his mental instability, becoming a terrorist after the Cold War. Renard kidnapped Electra King years before The World Is Not Enough takes place. When Elektra's father asked MI6 for help, M sent 009 to kill Renard. 009 shot him in the head but it didn't kill him; instead disabling his feeling for pain.
Elektra King
Actress: Sophie Marceau
Elektra is the daughter of Sir Robert King, whose mother's side of the family is of Azeri descent and fled the country immediately after the Soviet Union was established. She was kidnapped as a teenager by the terrorist Renard, and her father refused to pay the ransom on the advice of family friend (and James Bond's boss) M.
Die Another Day (2002)
Colonel Moon
Actress: Will Yun Lee
In Die Another Day, Colonel Moon changes his identity to diamond tycoon Gustav Graves by using gene therapy. Graves uses his alleged 'hunger-fighting' satellite Icarus as a weapon that North Korea can use to destroy South Korea. Bond doesn't realize the switch in identity has taken place until the unveiling of Icarus, where he sees Koreans at the party, hinting to him Graves isn't who he seems.
Gustav Graves
Actress: Toby Stephens
Gustav Graves is an identity adopted by North Korean Colonel Tan-Sun Moon, the son of General Moon. In a hope that a Western education will help bridge the gap between East and West, General Moon sent his son to study at Oxford and Harvard. It was an experience which would prove formative on the young Moon, providing him with the contacts which he would later use; including Miranda Frost. General Moon would later regret the decision, coming to believe that his son had become corrupted by the ideas and greed of the West.
Casino Royale (2006)
Le Chiffre
Actress: Mads Mikkelsen
Le Chiffre was earliest seen during 1945 as a inmate of the Dachau DP camp in the US Zone of Germany. Then in January 1946 he became the paymaster of the "Syndicat des Ouvriers d'Alsace" (SODA), a SMERSH controlled trade union. He made a major investment in a string of brothels with money belonging to SMERSH.
Mr. White
Actress: Jesper Christensen
Jesper Christensen plays Mr. White in 2006's Casino Royale and acts as Le Chiffre's superior. At the end of the movie, we find that Mr. White is actually an underling in a much larger criminal organization that will be central to the plot of Bond 22. Bond eventually tracks him down in Royale thanks to the foresight of the late Vesper Lynd.
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Dominic Greene
Actress: Mathieu Amalric
Greene is a member of the sinister Quantum organization and head of Greene Planet, a worldwide utilities provider that exploits newly formed governments and corrupt politicians - most notably in South America in Quantum Of Solace. Although his rank in the Quantum organization is not revealed, his colleagues are several in number and can only indicate that James Bond is up against a criminal syndicate not seen since SPECTRE. Greene meets his maker when Bond drives him out to the remote Bolivian desert, leaving him with only a can of motor oil to quench his thirst. Greene is later found dead with oil in his stomach (a death similar to Agent Fields) and two gun shots in the back of his head (likely executed by fellow dissatisfied Quantum members).
Skyfall (2012)
Raoul Silva
Actress: Javier Bardem
During his years in MI6, Silva had worked alongside M in Hong Kong. M, who was section chief at the time, noticed that the operative had engaged in unauthorized hacking of the Chinese. Whilst she was overseeing the transition in Hong Kong from a British colony to a special administrative region she sold out Silva in exchange for prisoners held by the Chinese government.