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
The Man with the Golden Gun (novel) in the second draft. Publishers Jonathan Cape passed the manuscript to Kingsley Amis for his thoughts and advice on the story, although his suggestions were not used. The novel was serialised in 1965, firstly in the "Daily Express" and then in "Playboy"; in 1966 a daily comic strip adaptation was also published in the "Daily Express". In 1974 the book was loosely adapted as the ninth film in the Eon Productions "James Bond" series, with Roger Moore playing Bond and Fleming's cousin, Christopher Lee, as Scaramanga. A year after James Bond's final confrontation with Ernst Stavro Blofeld, while on a