Ernst Stavro Blofeld

Lore & Background

Blofeld was born on 28 May 1908 in Gdingen, Imperial Germany (now Gdynia, Poland); his father Ernst George Blofeld was Polish of German descent, and his mother Maria Stavro Michelopoulos was Greek. After World War I, he became a Polish national. He worked for the Polish Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Foreseeing World War II, he sold information to Nazi Germany, destroyed his records, and moved to Turkey, where he set up a private intelligence organisation. During the war, he sold information to both sides. He later moved to South America. In the John Gardner novel For Special Services, Blofeld is depicted as having had a daughter, Nena, with a French prostitute.

In Their Own Story

The control room hummed with the low thrum of satellite uplink systems. Blofeld sat motionless, the white cat curling in his lap, eyes half-closed as though the entire operation were a formality. On the monitors, a single green dot tracked the satellite's orbit. He did not need to watch. He had already calculated the moment it would be too late for the man in the black suit to stop it. The door behind him opened. Footsteps, measured, unhurried. Blofeld did not turn. "You are late, Mr. Bond," he said, and the cat's tail flicked once, slow, almost amused.

Reader's Guide

Blofeld appears in three Ian Fleming novels: Thunderball (1961), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963), and You Only Live Twice (1964). He also appears in eight Eon Productions films: From Russia with Love (1963), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Diamonds Are Forever (1971), possibly For Your Eyes Only (1981; pre-title sequence depicts a similar but unnamed character), Spectre (2015), and No Time to Die (2021). He also appears in Never Say Never Again (1983), a non-Eon remake of Thunderball. Blofeld has been played by Donald Pleasence, Telly Savalas, Charles Gray, Max von Sydow, and Christoph Waltz, among others. Initially, his face was not shown, only his hands stroking a white, blue-eyed Persian cat; his face is revealed in You Only Live Twice.

Did You Know?

• Blofeld's characteristics, particularly stroking a white cat, have become tropes in popular fiction, parodied in the Austin Powers film series, Inspector Gadget, Danger Mouse, and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
• It is commonly believed that the name Blofeld was inspired by Thomas Blofeld, father of cricket commentator Henry Blofeld, or by Thomas's brother John Blofeld, a judge.
• In the novel Thunderball, Blofeld kills an operative for raping a kidnapped teenage girl, refunding half the ransom.