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 è al telefono" (1972), an Italian giallo; "Pancho Villa" (1972), playing the title role in a Spanish spaghetti Western; "A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die" (1972), another Western, this time with James Coburn; and "Senza ragione" (1973), an Italian thriller. "I had worked my way up to star billing," he later said, "when the bottom dropped out of the movie business. I could have stayed in Europe and made Italian, movies but I discovered the big difference between an Italian and American movie is that in the American movie you get paid." Savalas first played Detective Kojak in