Pay attention, 007. James Bond may be the leading role, but other classic characters have been alongside you on the big screen in your rise to stardom.
Here are five of the greatest classic James Bond characters:
1. Henchman: Oddjob - The dour, taciturn majordomo to Auric Goldfinger preferred to talk through his hat — and you might say he was one for the cutting remark. Former weightlifter and wrestler Harold Sakata gave the man with the hat a radiating menace in a role that could have been, in lesser hands, purely comic.
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The website Film School Rejects listed him as only No. 3 among Bond villain henchmen (No. 1 was the over-the-top Jaws, who won, the web site admitted, mostly because he was in two movies). The site nonetheless said: "There is absolutely no way this list would be worth the paper it’s not printed on if it did not include Auric Goldfinger’s right-hand manservant. (Sakata) brought to life the tough-as-nails silent sidekick Oddjob with vicious grace."
2. Villain: Blofeld - There's just no getting rid of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, is there, 007? Dropping him down a chimney wasn't enough to eliminate the No. 1 man at Spectre. Four different actors played him, with Charles Gray making it through two films.
According to Moviepilot, Blofeld will show up in the next James Bond movie, too, but fans can expect a plot twist.
3. Backup Man: Q - From the poison-dart pen to the rotating license plates that made the Bondmobile legal in three countries, Bond could always count on Q. He's been called "The Armourer," "Major Boothroyd" and even "R," and four actors have played this favorite, but Bond aficionados will always fondly remember Desmond Llewelyn, who died in a car crash on his way home from meeting fans.
Entertainment Weekly called Q "the master of spy technology at MI6 and a sharp comic foil for Agent 007.
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4. Bond Girl: Teresa Di Vincenzo – This favorite Bond girl from "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was cool, competent and Bond's savior. Who else but Diana Rigg, Emma Peel herself, could have played her? Of course you married her, and she didn't deserve that sad end. She herself said, "People who want to stay alive play it safe."
5. Bond: James Bond - It wouldn't be Bond without Bond, up there on the screen leaving viewers alternately shaken and stirred with his hijinks. The role was played memorably by Sean Connery, archly by Roger Moore, chillingly by Timothy Dalton, suavely by Pierce Brosnan, frighteningly by Daniel Craig, comically by David Niven, or forgettably by George Lazenby or Barry Nelson (
who the website What Culture reminded us was the first actor to play James Bond in films).
But as film critic Roger Ebert put it: "Bond is consistently Bond: He remains recognizably the same man he was in 1962 ... He is an archetype so persuasive that to change him would be sacrilegious."
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