Roger Moore’s James Bond did the one thing Daniel Craig’s 007 couldn’t: kill Bond’s greatest enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld. In the 25th Bond film, No Time To Die, the terrorist mastermind is still alive and is in MI6 custody after Craig’s Bond spared Blofeld’s (Christoph Waltz) life at the conclusion of Spectre - a decision 007 will no doubt live to regret. But in the original James Bond movie continuity, it was Roger Moore’s version of 007 who avenged all of the pain Blofeld caused his predecessors, Sean Connery and George Lazenby.

Blofeld debuted in 1963’s From Russia With Love (although SPECTRE itself was the shadowy villain of 1962’s Dr. No) and the cat-stroking megalomaniac also appeared in 1965’s Thunderball, but Blofeld finally met Sean Connery’s James Bond face-to-face in 1967’s You Only Live Twice, where SPECTRE’s sinister leader was played by Donald Pleasance. But it would be two different actors, George Lazenby’s James Bond and Telly Savalas as Blofeld, who would play out their most fateful encounter. After 007 foiled Blofeld’s plot in 1969’s On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the villain exacted revenge by murdering Bond’s new bride Tracy (Diana Rigg) at the conclusion of the film. In 1971’s Diamonds Are Forever, Sean Connery returned as James Bond and went on a global manhunt for Blofeld (now played by Charles Grey); 007 finally killed his arch-nemesis at the end of the film (or so he thought).

A decade later, in For Your Eyes Only, it was Roger Moore who rid James Bond of Blofeld once and for all. In the film’s pre-title sequence, Moore’s 007 visited Tracy’s grave. (This further established that Moore’s Bond is the same character Connery and Lazenby played; Tracy was previously mentioned as Bond’s dead wife in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me.) A helicopter then picked up Bond, but he quickly realized it was being remote-controlled by Blofeld, who was back from the dead and out to kill 007. However, Bond gained control of the chopper, located Blofeld, and then used it to ensnare the supervillain. As Blofeld begged for his life, Bond flew Blofeld above a factory and dropped him down a chimney shaft, putting an end to him for good. Blofeld was never seen again for the rest of James Bond’s original continuity of films, which ended with 2002’s Die Another Day.

The character Bond executed in For Your Eyes Only wasn’t identified as Blofeld because of legal issues with producer Kevin McClory (who owned the rights to Blofeld and SPECTRE dating back to Thunderball), but there was no mistaking who the bald villain in the wheelchair was intended to be. By killing Blofeld, Roger Moore’s 007 put the greatest villain of his legacy to rest, ensuring that threat wouldn’t return in the 1980s and onward.

Ironically, as the second-longest serving James Bond after Daniel Craig, Moore’s 007 is usually remembered more for being the “funny” Bond because of the campiness of 1979’s Moonraker and 1983’s Octopussy, but the truth is Roger Moore’s James Bond was an utterly ruthless killer when he needed to be. The way Bond murdered Blofeld in cold blood (and with a hint of delight) to avenge Tracy is proof positive that Moore’s 007 was not to be trifled with.

In 2015, Blofeld and SPECTRE returned in Daniel Craig’s rebooted continuity where the villain was retconned as Bond’s adoptive brother and the “author of all of his pain.” But at the pivotal moment in Spectre’s conclusion, Craig’s 007 spared Blofeld’s life, which was an act of mercy that felt like a massive tactical error to fans who had reason to believe Blofeld would return to ruin Bond’s happy ending with Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux). Craig’s 007 won has raves for being the best Bond since Sean Connery and he is regarded as the saga’s most believably edgy and violent incarnation of the secret agent, and yet Craig’s Bond inexplicably failed to use his license to kill on Blofeld. However, if it were Moore’s cold-blooded James Bond standing on that London bridge in Spectre, it’s unlikely Blofeld would have lived to see another day.

Next: Why Roger Moore’s James Bond Never Drove An Aston Martin

  • Bond 25 Release Date: 2021-10-08