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 (1977) for Lew Grade. He wrote, directed, and appeared in a thriller "Beyond Reason (1977 film)" (1977, not released until 1985). In 1978, after five seasons and 118 episodes, CBS canceled the show because of low ratings. Savalas was unhappy about the show's demise, but he got the chance to reprise the Kojak persona in several television films. After the series' cancellation, Savalas did "Escape to Athena" (1978) and a cameo in "The Muppet Movie" (1979) for Grade. He had a support part in "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" (1979) and "The French Atlantic Affair" (1980) and the lead in "Border