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 not go. Savalas went to cover for his friend and ended up being cast on "And Bring Home a Baby," an episode of "Armstrong Circle Theatre" in January 1958. He appeared on two more episodes of this same series in 1959 and 1960, one acting alongside a young Sydney Pollack. He was also in a version of "The Iceman Cometh". Savalas quickly became in much demand as a guest star on TV shows, appearing in "Sunday Showcase," "," "Dow Hour of Great Mysteries" (an adaptation of "The Cat and the Canary"), "Naked City" (alongside Claude Rains), "The Witness" (playing Lucky