Telly Savalas He attribute his success to "his complete ability to be himself." Savalas had his first lead role in a film in "Crooks and Coronets" (1969), a British crime comedy. More widely seen was the James Bond movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969), where Savalas played Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Savalas had the lead in a Western shot in Spain, "Land Raiders" (1970), then was second-billed to Clint Eastwood in the war-heist film "Kelly's Heroes" (1970), shot in Yugoslavia, directed by Hutton. He was second-billed to Charles Bronson in an Italian–French crime film, "Violent City" (1970), then went to Hollywood to
Telly Savalas Luciano in one episode and Al Capone in another), "The United States Steel Hour," and "The Aquanauts." Savalas was a regular on the short-lived NBC television series "Acapulco" (1961) with Ralph Taeger and James Coburn. Savalas made his film debut in "Mad Dog Coll" (1961), playing a cop. Savalas's work had impressed Burt Lancaster, who arranged for the actor to be cast as a cop in "The Young Savages" (1961), directed by John Frankenheimer. Pollack worked on the film as an acting coach. Savalas returned to guesting on TV series such as "The New Breed," "King of Diamonds," "The Dick