text: Originally, On Her Majesty's Secret Service was to include the twist that Blofeld was Auric Goldfinger's twin brother, and would be portrayed by Gert Fröbe. However, this plotline was scrapped when it was delayed in favor of You Only Live Twice. Czech actor Jan Werich was originally cast by producer Harry Saltzman to play Blofeld in You Only Live Twice.  Upon his arrival at the Pinewood set, both producer Albert R. Broccoli and director Lewis Gilbert felt that he was a bad choice, resembling a "poor, benevolent Santa Claus."  Nonetheless, in an attempt to make the casting work, Gilbert continued filming.  After five days, both Gilbert and Broccoli determined that Werich was not menacing enough, and recast Donald Pleasence in the role – the official excuse being that Werich was ill.
  In the third, fourth, and fifth appearancesYou Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Diamonds Are Foreverhe is the primary antagonist, meeting Bond face-to-face. In the film version of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, he is not Tracy Bond's (Diana Rigg) actual killer—rather, he plots to have Tracy killed. He drives the car from which Irma Bunt (Ilse Steppat) fires the fatal shots at Tracy, minutes after she had married Bond. During the opening sequence of Diamonds Are Forever, Bond searches relentlessly for Blofeld and finds him overseeing the transformation of a henchman into a decoy duplicate, using plastic surgery. Bond drowns the decoy in a mud bath and kills Blofeld by shoving him into a volcanic pool, saying "Welcome to Hell, Blofeld." After the credits, M tells Bond that now that Blofeld is dead, finished, he expects Bond to engage in "a little plain, solid work." Of course, the man Bond killed turns out to be a duplicate. Bond would meet Blofeld again, along with another decoy, later in the film before eliminating the second decoy, and crashing Blofeld's bathosub into the control room of an exploding oil rig, his fate left ambiguous.