Ernst Stavro Blofeld

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

According to the novel Thunderball, 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. Educated at the University of Warsaw with degrees in Political History and Economics, and later from the Warsaw University of Technology in Engineering and Radionics, he worked for the Polish Ministry of Posts and Telegraphs. Foreseeing World War II, Blofeld sold top-secret wires to Nazi Germany before destroying his records. He moved through Sweden and Turkey, selling information to both sides during the war. After backing the Allies following Erwin Rommel's defeat, he received medals before moving temporarily to South America to found SPECTRE. In the John Gardner novel For Special Services, he is depicted as having a daughter named Nena with a French prostitute.

In Their Own Story

In Thunderball (1961), Blofeld acts as a meticulous planner without conscience, motivated solely by financial gain. He describes himself as a man of honour when he kills his agent No. 12, Pierre Borraud, for raping a kidnapped girl and refunds the ransom. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963), Blofeld alters his appearance radically: he is now tall and thin at 12 stone (170 lb; 76 kg), with long silver hair, a syphilitic infection on his nose, no earlobes, and dark green tinted contact lenses. Posing as the Comte Balthazar de Bleuville in Switzerland, he plans to destroy Britain's agricultural economy. His vindictive nature culminates in the murder of Bond's new wife, Tracy. In You Only Live Twice (1964), hiding in Japan as Dr. Guntram Shatterhand, Blofeld is described as a big man, perhaps six foot three (190 cm), and powerfully built with a gold-capped tooth and drooping grey mustache. He admits to being insane before Bond strangles him to death.

Reader's Guide

Blofeld 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), Spectre (2015), and No Time to Die (2021). He is also possibly in For Your Eyes Only (1981) as an unnamed character, and appears in the non-Eon remake Never Say Never Again (1983). Initially, films followed a convention of not showing his face, only a close-up of hands stroking his white, blue-eyed Persian cat. His face is revealed in You Only Live Twice when he introduces himself to Bond for the first time. He has been played by Donald Pleasence, Telly Savalas, Charles Gray, Max von Sydow, and Christoph Waltz. His characteristics, particularly the cat-stroking trope, have inspired parodies like Dr. Evil and Mr. Bigglesworth in Austin Powers.

Did You Know?

• Blofeld's birthdate in the novels is 28 May 1908, which is also Ian Fleming's actual birthdate.
• In Thunderball, Blofeld has violet-scented breath from chewing flavored cachous whenever he must deliver bad news.
• The character was likely inspired by real-life Greek arms dealer Basil Zaharoff and named after John Blofeld, a judge Fleming saw at Boodle's club.
• In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Blofeld is described as having no earlobes and wearing dark green tinted contact lenses to hide his eyes.
• The convention of hiding Blofeld's face was broken in You Only Live Twice (1967) when he introduced himself to Bond in person.