I plan to be shaken, not stirred, this Friday night when my favorite series returns to the big screen as the latest James Bond 007 movie debuts.
The title of the new movie "Spectre" is taken from the name given to the organized ring of evil-doers who Bond battles in many of his films. It is an acronym for “Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion.” This will be the 24th film in the Bond series, the fourth, and perhaps last with present 007, Daniel Craig.
With less than a week remaining until I get to see the newest Bond, I came across an interesting article in Forbes magazine where the magazine estimated the net worth of the screen villains from the Bond series. In modern times, they would combine, according to the article, to be worth $26.2 billion.
Dr. No was the closest to qualifying for ObamaCare out of the villains, worth only a $110 million. He was the first villain back in 1962.
Forbes had the "Man with the Golden Gun" as ninth, worth only a paltry $115 million. However, it should be pointed out that Francisco Scaramanga (played by Christopher Lee) did own his own island and had to earn the money the old fashioned way – through homicide – at a million a shot. He also has a superfluous third nipple, for whatever that's worth.
The hottest Bond villain, Electra King, the oil baroness from the "World is Not Enough" (1997) was worth $420 million. She has the distinction of being the only girl Bond ever shot but she was also the only lead villain who was female from the series. “I never miss,” he mumbled after the shot.
Karl Stromberg, the shipping magnate from "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1977) was worth $625 million and was also shot by Bond as his underwater city slipped beneath the sea.
At No. 6 is the most popular Bond villain. Ernst Stavro Blofeld appeared in six films, encompassing three different Bonds and was played by several different actors including, but not limited to, Donald Pleasence and Telly Savalas. He is worth $640 million according to Forbes.
Now to the really rich guys. South American drug lord Frank Sanchez was worth a cool $1 billion in "License to Kill" (1989).
Elliot Carter, the media mogul from "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997) places fourth at $3.9 billion.
At third is one of my favorite villains, Max Zorin (played by Christopher Walken), the microchip mogul who plans to drown Silicon Valley in "View to a Kill" (1883). His estimated worth is $5.3 billion.
At No. 2 is Auric Goldfinger from, obviously, "Goldfinger" (1964). He would be worth $6.5 billion today given the current worth of gold.
The richest Bond villain, according to Forbes, is Hugo Drax from "Moonraker" (1979). He owned his own fleet of space shuttles and planned to destroy humanity and replace it with his own master race. He failed and was last seen doing a spacewalk – without a space suit.
The downside of being one of these rich Bond villains is all 10 of them are dead. You can’t take it with you. Standard reporter Duane Sherrill can be reached at 473-2191.
