1. Auric Goldfinger (Gert Frobe) from Goldfinger
2. Maximillian Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer) from Never Say Never Again
3. Le Chiffre (Orson Welles) from Casino Royale (1966)
4. Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan) from Octopussy
5. Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelsen) from Casino Royale (2006)
6. Dr. Kanaga/Mr. Big (Yaphet Kotto) from Live and Let Die
7. Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Pleasence, Savalas & Gray) from YOLT, OHMSS & DAF
8. Alec "006" Trevelyan (Sean Bean) from GoldenEye
9. Dr. Julius No (Joseph Wiseman) from Dr. No
10. Max Zorin (Christopher Walken) from A View to a Kill
11. Viktor "Renard" Zokas (Robert Carlyle) from The World is Not Enough
12. Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) from Quantum of Solace
13. Aristotle "Aris" Kristatos (Julian Glover) from For Your Eyes Only
14. Karl Stromberg (Curd Jurgens) from The Spy Who Loved Me
15. Elliot Carver (Johnathan Pryce) from Tomorrow Never Dies
16. Hugo Drax (Michael Lonsdale) from Moonraker
17. Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi) from Licence to Kill
18. Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker) from The Living Daylights
19. Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens) from Die Another Day
A lot of bad ideas here.
Goldfinger is the complete package or evil + genius + fun.
Orson Wells is one of two performances in 1966s Casino Royale that worked. Completely different from the modern Le Chiffre, but it works without completely coming off like something from Austin Powers. You're not alone Sam.
I always liked Dr. Kanaga and Kotto was great in the part, though I know the part smacked of racism to some.
Stromberg, Kristatos and Drax were almost non-entities in their Bond films, a big shame with Drax since Lonsdale is from Day of the Jackal and I love watching him in anything.
Largo was amazing, one of the few Bond villains with fully-dimensional complexity. He's got even more going on than 2006s La Chiffre, and Brandauer is great in the role.
Max Zorin could've been a lot worse, and I do think Walken tries to bring his nuttiness to the part. I'd be up for seeing him cast as another Bond villain.
Whitaker was indicative of what was wrong with the Dalton Bonds. Trying too hard to find real world troublemakers.
Sanchez is a great idea for a villain, but much as I like Robert Davi in Die Hard, he's a character actor and doesn't have the chops for the part. Had this film been made 10 years later, they would've switched him with Benecio and THAT would've been awesome.
You all love Sean Bean, but he's not in the film enough and Famke Jensen makes a more memorable impression.
I'm the big defender of TWINE, but Renard is overshadowed by the real villain and Carlyle isn't given enough to do.
Elliot Carver is a joke of a bad guy played by an actor indulging in too much ham.
Gustav Graves was the bottom of the barrel for me. It was like they wanted Guy Pearce so bad, so they hired this look alike and asked him to try and do a Pearce impression. I wanted Bond to slap that smile right off his face.
Mathieu Amalric is a fine actor, but he seemed tripped up by the english language. He comes off as tired all the time. Playing at being a bad guy, but never feeling the villainy.