Telly Savalas Telly Savalas Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas (January 21, 1924 – January 22, 1994) was an American actor and singer whose career spanned four decades of television, noted for his resonant voice and his bald head. He also released the one-hit wonder song, "If?," which he introduced in the UK in 1975. Savalas's career began in films in 1961. His movie credits include "The Young Savages" (1961), "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965), "Battle of the Bulge" (1965), "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), "The Scalphunters" (1968), supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969), "Kelly's Heroes"
Telly Savalas the 1980s and early 1990s, Savalas appeared in commercials for the Players' Club Gold Card. In 1982 along with Bob Hope and Linda Evans, he participated in the "world premiere" television ad introducing Diet Coke to Americans. On October 28, 1987, Savalas hosted "Return to the Titanic Live", a two-hour television special broadcast from Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris. Savalas appeared on the Australian supernatural television show "The Extraordinary," in which he told a personal ghost story similar to the vanishing hitchhiker. In the late 1980s Savalas guest-starred on an episode of "The Equalizer," which was produced