By David Craig

Published: Friday, 14 October 2022 at 12:00 am

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The votes are in: we can now declare that Ernst Stavro Blofeld has been named the best James Bond villain of all time by readers of RadioTimes.com.

Over on our Twitter page, we’ve been running a series of polls pitting the spy’s greatest nemeses against each other in the colosseum of public opinion.

In total, 28 baddies were in contention for the title (a shortlist compiled by the team at RadioTimes.com), which was whittled down to 14 by voters in seven initial group stages.

Then came a second round, the semi-finals and the last showdown, which saw Blofeld go up against fellow 007 icon Jaws (who narrowly beat Goldfinger in the previous vote-off).

It was a closely fought battle, but ultimately Blofeld claimed the win, with 56 per cent of the vote as opposed to the 44 per cent taken by Jaws.

It’s impressive to see things come down to the wire like this given that Jaws only ever appeared in two James Bond films – The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker – as opposed to Blofeld’s nine features (including the non-Eon flick Never Say Never Again and his unnamed appearance in the For Your Eyes Only pre-credits sequence).

The character has been portrayed by several actors, including Donald Pleasence, Telly Savalas, Charles Gray, Max von Sydow and, most recently, Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz.

Waltz first took on the role for 2015’s Spectre, where he was initially billed as Franz Oberhauser in an attempt to hoodwink fans, but later revealed himself as a member of the Blofeld family.

This incarnation of the character returned, albeit briefly, for last year’s climactic No Time to Die, which brought an end to Daniel Craig’s impressive tenure as 007.

Here are the results of the final:

#BondTwitter, it’s the final of our #BestBondVillain tournament – and Jaws narrowly beat Goldfinger to earn a spot in the final round. Who’s your ultimate Bond bad guy? Vote now!

— Radio Times (@RadioTimes) October 12, 2022