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
Ernst Stavro Blofeld the next novel, "The Man with the Golden Gun", published in 1965. In the film series, Blofeld first appears in "From Russia with Love" (credited as "Blofeld", though the name is never heard), then in "Thunderball" (uncredited). In these two appearances, his name is never pronounced, his face is not seen, and only his lower body is visible as he strokes his trademark white cat. Czech actor Jan Werich was originally cast by producer Harry Saltzman to play Blofeld in "You Only Live Twice". Upon his arrival at the Pinewood set, both producer Albert R. Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert