No need for a preamble here: what follows is my heavily-biased assessment of the major Bond villains (as well as quite a few of the minor ones).
Before we get going, I've got an Honorable Mention pick I wanted to throw out there:
I've never considered General Gogol to be a villain, and I don't think the series does, either. He's antagonistic on a few occasions, but the sense you always get watching him is that he is a respectable, highly competent man who is simply doing the best job that he can do on behalf of his nation. This brings him into opposition with M and M's agents at times, but does that make him evil? I don't think so.
However, I felt Gogol was well deserving of a mention here; he's not a villain in my estimation, but if he was he'd handily outrank a great many of the lunkheads on this list.
Beginning with this one, who earns my ire as the worst Bond villain of them all:
I know this movie has fans. I am not one of them. Among its chief problems is the bad guy, played here by Charles Gray, who appears at times to have been woken for filming from a deep stupor. I can't tell if he thinks he's playing the role with an eye toward humor, or if he's instead a genuinely awful actor who thinks he's playing the role seriously. Probably the former, but would I bet money on it? Not much.
Before we get going, I've got an Honorable Mention pick I wanted to throw out there:
Honorable Mention -- General Anatol Gogol (Walter Gotell), The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, A View to a Kill, and The Living Daylights
I've never considered General Gogol to be a villain, and I don't think the series does, either. He's antagonistic on a few occasions, but the sense you always get watching him is that he is a respectable, highly competent man who is simply doing the best job that he can do on behalf of his nation. This brings him into opposition with M and M's agents at times, but does that make him evil? I don't think so.
However, I felt Gogol was well deserving of a mention here; he's not a villain in my estimation, but if he was he'd handily outrank a great many of the lunkheads on this list.
Beginning with this one, who earns my ire as the worst Bond villain of them all:
#119 -- Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray), Diamonds Are Forever
I know this movie has fans. I am not one of them. Among its chief problems is the bad guy, played here by Charles Gray, who appears at times to have been woken for filming from a deep stupor. I can't tell if he thinks he's playing the role with an eye toward humor, or if he's instead a genuinely awful actor who thinks he's playing the role seriously. Probably the former, but would I bet money on it? Not much.