Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional character and a supervillain from the James Bond series of novels and films, who was created by Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory.

The anonymity of the villain was due to the legal dispute between Kevin McClory and Eon Productions over the Thunderball copyrights.

The most recent of these was Thunderball, a novel Fleming initially published under his own name, but which was the subject of a legal action by its co-authors, Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham.

The case was heard on 24 March 1961 and allowed the book to be published, although the door was left open for McClory to pursue further action at a later date.

He did so and, on 19 November 1963, the case of McClory v Fleming was heard at the Chancery Division of the High Court.

Technically the first novelization of a James Bond screenplay, it was born from a collaboration by five people: Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo, although the controversial shared credit of Fleming, McClory and Whittingham was the result of a courtroom decision.

The second adaptation, Never Say Never Again, was released as an independent production in 1983 also starring Connery as Bond and was produced by Kevin McClory.

In the summer of 1958 Fleming and his friend, Ivar Bryce, began talking about the possibility of a Bond film ; in the autumn of 1958 Bryce introduced Fleming to a young Irish writer and director, Kevin McClory, and the three of them, together with Fleming and Bryce's friend Ernest Cuneo, formed the partnership Xanadu Productions, named after Bryce's Bahamian home, but which was never actually formed into a company.

In May 1959 Fleming, Bryce, Cuneo and McClory met first at Bryce's Essex house and then in McClory's London home as they came up with a story outline which was based on an aeroplane full of celebrities and a female lead called Fatima Blush.

McClory was fascinated by the underwater world and wanted to make a film that included it.

Much of the attraction Fleming felt working alongside McClory was based on McClory's film, The Boy and the Bridge, which was the official British entry to the 1959 Venice Film Festival.

On his travels – through Japan, Hong Kong and into the US, Fleming met with McClory and Ivar Bryce in New York and McClory told Fleming that Whittingham had completed a full outline, which was ready to shoot.

The case was heard on 24 March 1961 and allowed the book to be published, although the door was left open for McClory to pursue further action at a later date.

He did so and on 19 November 1963, the case of McClory v Fleming was heard at the Chancery Division of the High Court.

The case lasted three weeks, during which time Fleming was unwell — including having a heart attack during the case itself — and, under advice from his friend Ivar Bryce, they offered a deal to McClory, settling out of court.

McClory gained the literary and film rights for the screenplay, while Fleming was given the rights to the novel, although it had to be recognised as being " based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and the Author ".

In 1963, Eon Productions producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman made agreement with McClory to adapt the novel into the fourth James Bond film, stipulating also that McClory would not be allowed to make further adaptations of Thunderball for at least ten years since the release.

In March 1961, McClory read an advance copy of the book and he and Whittingham immediately petitioned the High Court in London for an injunction to stop publication.

Back in Britain in December 1959, Fleming met with McClory and Whittingham for a script conference ; shortly afterwards McClory and Whittingham sent Fleming a script, Longitude 78 West, which Fleming considered to be good, although he changed the title to Thunderball.

In March 1961 McClory read an advance copy of the book and he and Whittingham immediately petitioned the High Court in London for an injunction to stop publication.

Both McClory and Fleming claim to have come up with the concept of SPECTRE ; Fleming biographer Andrew Lycett and John Cork both note Fleming as the originator of the group, Lycett saying that " proposed that Bond should confront not the Russians but SPECTRE ..." whilst Cork produced a memorandum in which Fleming called for the change to SPECTRE:

The film was produced as the fourth Eon Productions film and, as well as listing Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman as producers, Kevin McClory was also included in the production team: Broccoli and Saltzman made a deal with McClory, to undertake a joint production of Thunderball, which stopped McClory from making any further version of the novel for a period of ten years following the release of the Eon-produced version.

Fleming, along with independent producer Kevin McClory and scriptwriter Jack Whittingham had worked together on a script for a potential Bond film, to be called Longitude 78 West, which was subsequently abandoned because of the costs involved.

Fleming, " always reluctant to let a good idea lie idle ", turned this into the novel Thunderball which did not credit either McClory or Whittingham ; McClory then took Fleming to the High Court in London for breach of copyright and the matter was settled in 1963.

After Eon Productions started producing the Bond films, they subsequently made a deal with McClory, who would produce Thunderball, and then not make any further version of the novel for a period of ten years following the release of the Eon-produced version in 1965.

When producer Kevin McClory had first planned the film in 1964 he held initial talks with Richard Burton for the part of Bond, although the project came to nothing because of the legal issues involved.

McClory started a career as a film boom operator and location manager where he worked on The Cockleshell Heroes for Warwick Films.

Although McClory and Taylor had plans to marry, Taylor would eventually leave him for her future husband Mike Todd.

SPECTRE and its characters have been at the centre of long-standing litigation starting in 1961 between Kevin McClory and Ian Fleming over the film rights to Thunderball and the ownership of the organisation and its characters.

Unlike the majority of Bond films, Never Say Never Again was not produced by Eon Productions, but by an independent production company, one of whose members was Kevin McClory, one of the original writers of the Thunderball storyline with Ian Fleming and Jack Whittingham.

Broccoli made one notable attempt at a non-Bond film, an adaptation of Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1968, and due to legal wrangling over the rights to story elements, ceded producer credit on Thunderball to Kevin McClory.

Fleming paid McClory damages of £ 35, 000 and his court costs of £ 52, 000, and future versions of the novel were credited as " based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming " – in that order.

He is particularly famous for having collaborated with Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory on a James Bond screenplay for a film.

As a result of the settlement, future versions of the novel were forced to credit, based on the screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming ( in that order ).

" The screenplay was credited to Richard Maibaum and John Hopkins, but was credited as having been " Based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham ," which also was credited as being " Based on the original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming.

# Thunderball ( 1961 ) — " based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and Ian Fleming "

Two theatrically released James Bond films have been made outside the control of Danjaq, a spoof called Casino Royale ( 1967 ) because the rights to that book had been sold prior to the Eon / Danjaq deal, and a serious James Bond film called Never Say Never Again ( 1983 ), a remake of the Danjaq film Thunderball ; the latter was made possible due to a legal dispute involving Kevin McClory, one of the credited co-writers of Thunderball, who was awarded the film rights to the novel in a 1963 settlement with Ian Fleming.

Future editions of the The Life of Ian Fleming were altered after film producer Kevin McClory alleged that parts of the biography were untrue regarding the novel and film rights to Thunderball.

In January 1960 McClory visited Fleming's Jamaican home Goldeneye, where Fleming explained his intention of delivering the screenplay to MCA, with a recommendation from him and Bryce that McClory act as producer.

McClory rejected all of Fleming's books but felt that the character James Bond could be adapted for the screen.

In the 1990s, Columbia announced plans of a rival James Bond franchise, since they owned the rights of Casino Royale and were planning to make a third version of Thunderball with Kevin McClory.

McClory, Bryce, Fleming and Jack Whittingham developed the new James Bond character through a number of treatments and screenplays.

In 1976, McClory announced he was to produce an original James Bond film to be titled either Warhead, Warhead 8, or James Bond of the Secret Service, but the project was severely hampered as a result of legal action brought by the Fleming Trustees and United Artists.

Lord Justices Waller, Fox and May affirmed McClory's right to make James Bond films and enjoined the Plaintiffs from taking similar legal action against McClory in the future.