Blofeld Style Model?
Hardyboy
Posts: 5,912Chief of Staff
This evening I was watching the 1940 classic, Dr. Cyclops--the original mad-scientist-who-shrinks-a-bunch-of-people movie--and I was struck by the whole look of the titular villain. Bald head, tan suits, myopic gaze. . .I dunno: could it be that, just over 25 years later, the makeup artist on a certain Bond film had this look in mind when he was making up Donald Pleasence? You decide. . .
Vox clamantis in deserto
Comments
It's entirely possible as Albert Dekker was more or less iconic as a villain for years because of that role. But the whole bald and/or foreign thing could also be traced back to any number of characters, from Lex Luthor to Ming the Merciless (Alex Raymond's thinly veiled "Yellow Peril" stereotype) to Otto Von Bismarck.
Fleming describes Blofeld as something of a mutt when it comes to lineage and ethnic identity, but Donald Pleasance's take on him always seemed more Germanic to me -- the shaved head in particular gives him a look that evokes some of the late Victorian images of the Prussian statesman, and combined with the Nehru jacket, accentuates his "foreign" identity when compared to the English.
Interestingly, I just watched Ghandi last night, and as I look at Dekker's image here, I'm reminded more of Ben Kingsley in that role than Donald Pleasance!