SPECTRE’s Ernst Stavro Blofeld has been named the best James Bond villain in a new poll conducted by DVD rental service LOVEFiLM.

According to Boxwish, LOVEFiLM asked their 1,000+ members to cast their votes for the best Bond baddie and the man with the white cat came away in first place with approximately 22% of the vote.

In a very close second place was Gert Frobe’s Auric Goldfinger from Sean Connery’s incredibly popular third 007 film. His villain came in with 21% of the votes. Christopher Lee’s Francisco Scaramanga from The Man with the Golden Gun followed in third place.

As a general note, no specific actor (such as Donald Pleasence or Telly Savalas) was cited for the Blofeld role in this poll.

In related news, Anthony Dawson’s portrayal of Blofeld in From Russia with Love (and voiced by Eric Pohlmann) earned him the #23 spot in a listing of the 50 greatest movie villains by The Times.

They said: ‘The Bond franchise has villainy aplenty and a rogue’s gallery that could have dominated the vast majority of this list. Blofeld is the best of the bunch and carries the torch for 007′s opponents. Why? As well as heading a sinister criminal organisation, Blofeld is the pin-up-boy for evil geniuses. Scar? Check. White cat for fiendish stroking? Check. Console of buttons guaranteeing a creative demise for those who cross him. Check.’

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