Re: Blofeld
When "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was made Telly Savalas wasn't Kojak yet, he was still the creepy guy from "The Dirty Dozen" and was a perfectly defensible casting choice, except that he was following Donald Pleasence in the role, which would have been a no-win situation for any actor, but with the change from Connery to Lazenby (who would have been acceptable as Bond if Connery had never played him) as well, it made the movie look like a discount version of Bond.
Of course it had Diana Rigg, which made up for a lot, and the very effective ending with the Louis Armstrong performance of "All The Time In The World".