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
Diamonds Are Forever (film) inspired by "Goldfinger"; as with that film, Guy Hamilton was hired to direct, and Shirley Bassey performs vocals on the title theme song. Locations included Las Vegas, California, Amsterdam and Lufthansa's hangar in Germany. "Diamonds Are Forever" was a commercial success, but received criticism for its humorous camp tone. The film marked the final appearance of the SPECTRE organization (though not by name) in Eon's Bond films until the 2015 film of the same name. James Bond—Agent 007—pursues Ernst Stavro Blofeld hunting down SPECTRE operatives across the world. He eventually finds him at a facility where Blofeld look-alikes are being