The Most Evil James Bond Villains

Dr. No is the antagonist in the first James Bond film, “Dr. No.” He is a scientific genius and a member of SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion – Bond’s ultimate enemy in most of the movies). Dr. No plans to disrupt a space launch and provoke a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union to further SPECTRE’s agenda.

Klebb is a former Soviet intelligence officer and now a high-ranking member of SPECTRE. In “From Russia With Love” she is part of the plot to steal a Soviet decoding device that is of interest to Britain’s MI6, and also wants to kill Bond. Klebb is known for her ruthlessness and employs a shoe equipped with poison-tipped blades as a weapon. She is played by the famed Austrian-American actress and singer Lotte Lenya, once married to composer Kurt Weill.

Blofeld is Bond’s recurring arch-nemesis, Blofeld – also known as “Number One” – is the head of the global criminal organization SPECTRE, known for his cold, calculating nature and his involvement in various nefarious schemes. In his first appearances, his face wasn’t seen; actor Anthony Dawson was filmed in close-up, petting a white cat, while Eric Pohlmann provided his voice. A Blofeld-like character appears, unnamed, in “For Your Eyes Only” (1981), but only in a pre-title sequence in which he is seen falling to his death. In “Spectre,” he is revealed to be Austrian-born Franz Oberhauser, Bond’s adoptive brother.

Goldfinger is a wealthy and ruthless businessman with an obsession for gold. He plans to irradiate the gold in Fort Knox, rendering it worthless and increasing the value of his own gold holdings, thereby destabilizing the global economy.

A wealthy and influential member of SPECTRE, Largo hijacks two nuclear warheads, threatening to destroy major cities unless he receives a massive ransom.

The main villain in “Live and Let Die,” Dr. Kanaga is a corrupt dictator and drug lord who masquerades as a community leader. Kananga plans to distribute heroin for free to increase addiction rates and subsequently profit from the increased demand.

Scaramanga is a highly skilled assassin with a golden gun who charges exorbitant fees for his services and is known for his love of killing and his sadistic tendencies. His mission is to murder Bond and steal a device capable of turning solar energy into a destructive weapon. English actor Christopher Lee, who played Scaramanga, was best known for his many cinematic portrayals of Count Dracula.

One of several Bond villains who wants to destroy the world in order to remake it, Stromberg is a wealthy shipping magnate who plans to start a global nuclear war and create a new civilization, under his control, to be born in underwater bases.

Known for his immense size (he’s over seven feet tall), deadly steel-capped teeth, and superhuman strength, Jaws – he is given no other name in the films – is one of Karl Stromberg’s henchmen. He is unique among Bond villains because in his second appearance, in “Moonraker,” he eventually becomes a good guy, turning on his new boss, Hugo Drax, and helping Bond defeat him – meanwhile falling in love with a woman he meets in a runaway cable car.

Drax is an industrialist who plans to use a nerve gas containing a toxin found in a rare orchid to destroy human civilization and repopulate the planet with his handpicked group of humans from his space station.

A suave, charismatic figure, Kristatos pretends to be Bond’s ally and manipulates him into retrieving the ATAC (Automatic Targeting Attack Communicator), a device capable of controlling British missile submarines – which he plans to sell to the KGB.

Orlov plans to smuggle a nuclear bomb onto a U.S. Air Force base in Germany and detonate it, triggering war between NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries and opening Western Europe to Soviet conquest.

A wealthy Afghan prince and black market dealer, Khan is a charismatic and cunning character who enjoys gambling and other high-stakes activities. He works with General Orlov in their plot, hoping to be paid with jewels stolen from the Soviets.

Zorin is a wealthy industrialist who plans to cause a massive earthquake along California’s San Andreas Fault, flooding Silicon Valley and allowing him to gain a monopoly in the microchip industry.

A manipulative character, Koskov is a high-ranking KGB officer who pretends to defect to the West, while putting in motion a plot to deceive British intelligence into killing his Soviet rival, General Pushkin.

An eccentric, delusional arms dealer who is obsessed with military history and toy soldiers and seeks to profit from international conflicts, Whitaker is brokering a deal with General Koskov and the Afghan Mujahideen to exchange high-tech arms for opium.

Known for his ruthlessness and sadistic nature, Sanchez is a powerful drug lord who seeks revenge on Bond after 007 and his CIA friend Felix Leiter capture him. He escapes, kills Leiter’s new bride, and submerges Leiter in a shark tank, where the agent loses a leg. Sanchez’s plot involves selling massive amounts of cocaine dissolved in gasoline.

Bond’s one-time friend and a fellow MI6 agent (he was code-named 006), Trevelyan was believed to have been killed on a mission to Russia. He survived, however, and linked up with a villainous Russian general with the objective of using a powerful satellite weapon called GoldenEye to cause financial chaos in London and exact revenge on the British government for betraying him.

A murderous associate of Trevelyan’s, Onatopp is a former Soviet fighter pilot whose most distinctive trait is her sexualized violence, as she derives pleasure from killing and has a penchant for using her physical strength against her enemies – for instance, crushing and asphyxiating her victims with her legs.

Carver is a media mogul who seeks to manipulate global events by firing a cruise missile on a sunken British ship towards Beijing, an act he hopes will precipitate a war between China and the U.K., boosting his media empire’s ratings.

Renard is a former KGB agent turned freelance terrorist whose defining characteristic is that he is unable to feel physical pain due to a bullet lodged in his brain. Instead of experiencing pain, he gradually loses his senses and becomes more dangerous over time. His goal is to destroy a pipeline project overseen by Sir Robert King by setting off a nuclear weapon near Istanbul.

A wealthy oil heiress with a personal vendetta against the British, King is Sir Robert King’s daughter. Renard kidnaps her as part of his plan, but she is a manipulative and cunning character who uses her charm to deceive others, leading Bond – with whom she forms a romantic relationship – to believe that she is a victim and an ally, while in reality she ends up collaborating with Renard.

Bond infiltrates a North Korean base where Colonel Moon is doing a brisk business trading weaponry for African conflict diamonds. After Moon is apparently killed while chasing Bond, his father, General Moon, imprisons and tortures 007.

Graves has a secret: He is actually Colonel Tan-Sun Moon, transformed into a billionaire British diamond merchant by DNA restructuring. Graves plans to use a satellite weapon to cut a swatch through the Korean Demilitarized Zone with focused solar energy, launching a war between North and South Korea to reunite the country.

An Albanian financier for international terrorists and a mathematical genius, Le Chiffre – French for “The Number” – organizes a high-stakes poker game in Montenegro to recoup money he lost for his clients after Bond thwarts his plot to attack an aerospace manufacturer.

Greene belongs to Quantum of Solace, a powerful clandestine network of influential individuals operating in various sectors, including politics, intelligence, and business. The organization’s main goal is to manipulate global events and gain control over valuable resources for their own benefit. Greene’s main project is to launch a coup d’etat in Bolivia which will leave him in charge of the country’s water supply.

Other than Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Mr. White – sometimes known as Craig Mitchell – is the most often-recurring antagonist in the Bond films. He is a high-ranking member of the Quantum organization and a shadowy figure involved in global criminal activities. His character evolves over time, and ends up becoming an almost sympathetic character.

Highly intelligent and technologically skilled, Silva is a former MI6 agent who has a personal vendetta against Bond and the British intelligence establishment, and seeks revenge against M, the head of MI6, for betraying him.

An important figure in the British intelligence community, designated as “C,” Denbigh is a proponent of increased surveillance and the merging of intelligence agencies into a global network called “Nine Eyes.” He also advocates for the dissolution of the “00” program, which includes James Bond’s role as a secret agent. He is eventually revealed to be working for SPECTRE.

Safin sets out to destroy SPECTRE, which betrayed his family, but later focuses on repurposing a powerful bio-weapon called Heracles, which can target entire groups of people based on their DNA – and which Safin plans to use to kill millions.