# Who in real life would make a good Bond villain? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908 "2010-03-01T20:18:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/1 "2010-03-01T20:18:30Z")
Inspired by **Simplicio’s** post in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=554094), I was wondering what person that is currently living may one day snap and turn into a real life super villain. From that post, Gaddafi’s already got the requisite Praetorian Guard around him with his female bodyguards. He’s a the leader of a not-so-nice country, so he’s got power and wealth. But as recently as a few years ago he stopped all work on nukes which is something I don’t think a villain would do, unless he’s got some secret stash somewhere. My first temptation would be to think about all of the rich and powerful people currently alive would CAN do something like this. However, many of them won’t. Obama’s the leader of the most powerful country in the world, but that doesn’t automatically qualify him. For one thing, he’s a nice guy, his country’s legislative body can block him, and like a large percentage of the country think he’s already evil so won’t follow him. So he wouldn’t make the cut. Bill Gates is rich, but he’s a philanthropist and doesn’t seem to harbor any world-ending obsessions. So what real life person has the power, wealth, influence, and most of all, the desire to possibly become a super villain? Dick Cheney? Ahmadinejad? Kim Jong Il’s probably the closest living equivalent, but he just likes to scare people and hasn’t really done anything terrible (except to his own countrymen). ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/2 "2010-03-01T20:57:33Z")
Ann Coulter ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/3 "2010-03-01T20:59:53Z")
I forget the name of the group, but they’re a weird religious/scientific group/cult that claimed to have cloned a human being a few years back. One of their spokespersons was a PhD (maybe two PhDs) who I remember being somewhat hot but with really crazy eyes. She’d be a great Bond villain as would the organization she represents. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/4 "2010-03-01T21:03:24Z")
Dick Cheney, who’s responsible for the deaths of many people who are not his countrymen. I don’t know if he’d warrant the super-high-tech fortress at sea and a stack of jumpsuit-clad henchmen, but he fits the profile. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/5 "2010-03-01T21:03:37Z")
Dick Cheney is my choice. Give him a white cat, and maybe a monocle and he would fit right in without further embellishment. I could see Kim Jong Il playing Oddjob though. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/6 "2010-03-01T21:06:16Z")
Lady Gaga. No, wait…she’d make a good Batman villain. Or at least a good Batman-from-the-60s villain. Pokerface! ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/7 "2010-03-01T21:08:11Z")
Dick Cheyney as The Penguin in the new Batman. Just give him the monacle and cigarette holder “whanh whanh whanh”. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/8 "2010-03-01T21:09:46Z")
Arnold Schwarzenegger — you just know that one day he is going to plant a nuke in the San Andreas fault and hold the whole coastline to ransom. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/9 "2010-03-01T21:25:35Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I forget the name of the group, but they’re a weird religious/scientific group/cult that claimed to have cloned a human being a few years back. One of their spokespersons was a PhD (maybe two PhDs) who I remember being somewhat hot but with really crazy eyes. She’d be a great Bond villain as would the organization she represents. [The Raelians](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra%C3%ABlism) ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/10 "2010-03-01T21:26:12Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I forget the name of the group, but they’re a weird religious/scientific group/cult that claimed to have cloned a human being a few years back. One of their spokespersons was a PhD (maybe two PhDs) who I remember being somewhat hot but with really crazy eyes. She’d be a great Bond villain as would the organization she represents. [That would be the Raelians](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigitte_Boisselier) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/11 "2010-03-01T21:31:00Z")
Donald Trump has the requisite greed and flamboyance, if I can ever figure out how wanting to control the real estate market can morph into a satisfactory plan for world domination and evil genius-level secret hideaway. Lyndon LaRouche is nearly 90, but in other ways could fill the bill perfectly. From Wikipedia: “His supporters see him as a political leader in the tradition of Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr., and a brilliant thinker who has been unfairly persecuted, while critics regard him as a cult leader, a conspiracy theorist, a fascist, and an anti-Semite.” ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/12 "2010-03-01T21:34:50Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Donald Trump has the requisite greed and flamboyance, if I can ever figure out how wanting to control the real estate market can morph into a satisfactory plan for world domination and evil genius-level secret hideaway. [Ask Lex Luthor in the first Superman movie!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lex_Luthor_in_other_media#Superman:_The_Movie) ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/13 "2010-03-01T21:36:19Z")
Vladmir Putin. What do I win? ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/14 "2010-03-01T21:37:38Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > So what real life person has the power, wealth, influence, and most of all, the desire to possibly become a super villain? Dick Cheney? Ahmadinejad? Kim Jong Il’s probably the closest living equivalent, but he just likes to scare people and hasn’t really done anything terrible (except to his own countrymen). Easy call. [Glenn Beck.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Beck) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/15 "2010-03-01T21:42:47Z")
Erik Prince, former CEO of Blackwater, would be an excellent Bond villain. Private army, no morals or ethics, happy to kill innocents, support by corrupt high level officials. And pretty secretive also. I always expected to see this guy with a cat. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/16 "2010-03-01T21:43:07Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#): > > Easy call. [Glenn Beck.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Beck) No, he’s sort of the Salacious Crumb to Rush Limbaugh’s Jabba. Sad, isn’t it? Maxwell’s Equations come and go, but Star Wars trivia stays in the head forever. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/17 "2010-03-01T21:45:40Z")
Rachel Maddow ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/18 "2010-03-01T21:50:33Z")
[Quasi-Related Hijack] I was reading an article in a magazine a few years ago about Jay-Z’s growing business empire. The pictures of the man living the high life and holding court have convinced me that he would be a perfect “evil businessman” Bond villain. Someone needs to make this happen for the next Bond movie. [/Quasi-Related Hijack] ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/19 "2010-03-01T21:54:58Z")
Richard Branson ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908/20 "2010-03-01T21:55:24Z")
This thread has made me wonder - is Forbes the definitive guide to the richest people on Earth, or are there likely to be people who say to Forbes, “You print my name in that rag of yours and I’ll buy it and make sure there is never a Forbes Rich List again. Kapiche?”? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-real-life-would-make-a-good-bond-villain/530908.md?page=2)