The Best Bond Villains of All-Time (original) (raw)
Published Oct 5, 2021, 12:01 PM EDT
Matt Goldberg has been an editor with Collider since 2007. As the site's Chief Film Critic, he has authored hundreds of reviews and covered major film festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival and the Sundance Film Festival. He resides in Atlanta with his wife and their dog Jack.
You can't have a good Bond movie without a good Bond villain. While sometimes a Bond movie will overstep and invest too much time in the villain and their convoluted machinations, when you strike the right balance between Bond and an antagonist, you get a really great dramatic tension that's unique to this franchise. It should also be noted that not all great Bond villains are the main baddie but sometimes their henchman or henchwoman who leaves the biggest impression.
I've run through the Bond franchise and listed the ten best Bond villains below. Some are primary antagonists and others are henchpeople, but all of them have done their damnedest to steal the spotlight from Bond and get you rooting for the bad guy.
10) Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Multiple)
Donald Pleasance as Blofeld
Image via EON
Blofeld makes the list through sheer persistence. It's not that Blofeld is particularly interesting; there's not much of a character beyond a thirst for doing evil and world domination, but like Bond, he's a collection of signifiers. You put him in a khaki Nehru suit, give him a white cat, and shave his head, and you've got Blofeld. By the time they finally "killed off" the character by dropping him down a smokestack in For Your Eyes Only, he didn't even need to be named (nor could he be named for legal purposes since the character rights were in dispute until they finally put him back on screen in the silliest way possible in Spectre). Blofeld isn't the most compelling Bond villain, but he's become inextricably tied to 007. For better or worse, he is James Bond's arch-nemesis.
9) Max Zorin (A View to a Kill)
Christopher Walken as Max Zorin
Image via EON
Never underestimate the power of great casting. While Christopher Walken has played better bad guys in his illustrious career, his casting here elevates a typical Bond villain and gives him that unique Walken flair we all love. His plan is kind of whatever (he wants to destroy Silicon Valley for a microchip monopoly, and let's be honest, destroying Silicon Valley today would arguably make you a hero), but Walken is just an incredibly entertaining figure to watch. What's surprising is that he was the first Oscar-winner to ever play a Bond villain, and I can't help but wonder why it took until Skyfall to make that happen again. Anyway, Max Zorin is great even if he's no Max Shreck.
- Donald "Red" Grant (From Russia with Love)
Robert Shaw as Donald "Red" Grant in From Russia with Love
Image via EON
Red is one of the finer Bond henchmen, and he starts the film off strong by showing that he's been trained specifically to kill James Bond. While it's one thing to have a villain with a large, convoluted plan, we should always give it up for the guys on the ground who are out there trying to kill Bond. Grant is a formidable foe, and his fight on a train with 007 is an all-timer for the franchise even though later films have tried (and failed) to outdo it. While Red as a character is kind of a blank slate, Robert Shaw's performance provides a dangerous aura, which counts when you know that your hero cannot be defeated.
7) Francisco Scaramanga (The Man with the Golden Gun)
Christopher Lee as Francisco Scaramanga in The Man with the Golden Gun
Image via EON
What a delightfully bizarre antagonist. Scaramanga is the eponymous "Man with the Golden Gun", an assassin who grew up being a trickshot artist in the circus and now sells his services to the highest bidder. Like Red, Scaramanga also trains specifically to kill Bond, but he has the added benefit of being a giant weirdo who lives on an island, wants to duel Bond to the death, and also kind of wants to be his buddy. Christopher Lee is delectably silly here without ever chewing the scenery. He walks the line between camp and seriousness like few can, and it turns Scaramanga into the most threatening three-nippled villain you'll ever see.
- Alec Trevelyan (GoldenEye)
Sean Bean as Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye
Image via EON
I'm a little surprised it took until 1995 for the Bond franchise to attempt a "dark mirror" version of Bond as the main villain. Yes, there are certain reflections here and there (Red is kind of like SPECTRE's Bond), but the franchise did well to try and define Bond by a darker version of himself. Granted, Bond being Bond, there usually has to be larger designs so Trevelyan is also a bank robber and global destabilizer looking to avenge his dead parents, but at least he has a pre-existing relationship with Bond that the movie leans on. Sean Bean also makes for a great Bond villain, who plays the role somewhere in between a scorned younger brother and someone who knows how to attack Bond on a personal level.
5) Oddjob (Goldfinger)
Harold Sakata as Oddjob in Goldfinger
Image via EON
Oddjob is one of the silliest characters in Bond history, and I love him for it. His deadly weapon is…his hat. Like he knows how to fight and all that other good stuff, but he uses his hat to kill! That's great! Everything about the character is perfectly crafted like hiring Olympic weightlifter Harold Sakata for the role, to the way he dresses, to remaining completely silent. Everything about Oddjob is memorable, and while sometimes the Bond series can overreach with how silly it can be, I love a good, strange henchman like Oddjob. I tip my razor-blade hat to him.
4) Auric Goldfinger (Goldfinger)
Gert Frobe as Auric Goldfinger in Goldfinger
Image via EON
Goldfinger is the platonic ideal of a Bond villain. He wasn't the first (that would be Dr. No) nor is he the most frequent (Blofled), but he defined the popular ideal of what a Bond villain is and what he does. Sure, Blofeld may be out here running SPECTRE, but Goldfinger is the one defining what we expect from Bond villains for most of the franchise—a rich asshole with plans of world domination or corruption. From how he torments Bond ("No, Mr. Bond, I expect you to die!") to his boundless confidence in his own power to his overly convoluted plot and failure to just directly kill Bond, Gert Fröbe as Auric Goldfinger set the bar for what we expect from Bond's antagonist.
3) Xenia Onatopp (GoldenEye)
Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp in GoldenEye
Image via EON
Some may think that Onatopp ranks too high on this list, especially considering she's only a henchwoman rather than a main villain. I'd counter that Onatopp is revolutionary in the pantheon of Bond baddies because her sexuality is her weapon. Bond had faced off against henchwomen before (usually after sleeping with them), but Onatopp is different in that she takes something Bond prides himself on—sex—and turns it lethal. She's a sexual sadist who suffocates her prey with her thighs, and you can see that Famke Janssen is having an absolute blast playing the role. Every time Onatopp is on screen, she electrifies the film through her unabashed sexuality and gleeful villainy.
2) Silva (Skyfall)
Javier Bardem as Silva in Skyfall
Image via EON
Silva is unique in the pantheon of Bond villains in that he has the power to dominate the globe through his skills as a spy and a technological genius, but that's not his goal. He's on a mission of revenge against M (Judi Dench), and those personal stakes change the entire complexion of the picture. Rather than give Silva a larger plan that also coincides with his vendetta against M (which had already been done anyway in The World Is Not Enough), he has a twisted obsession with the head of MI6, that also gives him a nice parallel with Bond. They're the lost sons of M, but whereas the villain seeks to destroy, Bond works to protect. Javier Bardem's colorful performance makes for a memorable performance and one that actually serves to illustrate who Bond is rather than just antagonizing 007.
1) Jaws (The Spy Who Loved Me & Moonraker)
Richard Kiel as Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me
Image via EON
I've got to give it up for my main man, Jaws. Richard Kiel's appropriately named henchman is just an unstoppable tank with metal teeth. I can't think of a better counterpoint to Bond. Most of Bond's villains share his refinement and finesse. Jaws, by comparison, is a force of nature that just keeps coming for Bond. His single-minded determination turns his lack of characterization into a positive as his main goal is just to kill James Bond. My dude is out there chewing up sharks and then being so popular that the producers had to bring him for Moonraker where he did a hero turn and got himself a girlfriend. All hail Jaws!
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