Richard Dawson Kiel (born
September 13,
1939) is an
American actor best known for his role as the steel-toothed
Jaws in the
James Bond movies
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and
Moonraker (1979) as well as the video game
Everything or Nothing, and Mr. Larson in
Happy Gilmore. He is 7 feet 1.5 inches (2.17 m) tall.
Life and career
Kiel was born in
Detroit, Michigan. He made his acting debut in a 1960
Laramie episode called "Street of Hate." He also acted in an unaired TV-pilot featuring
Lee Falk's superhero
The Phantom, where Kiel played an assassin called "Big Mike", who was hired to kill the title hero. He also has a Son named Bennett Kiel and a grandson that goes by Bennett Kiel as well
Kiel broke into films in the early 1960s with the
B-movie Eegah (
1962).
Eegah was later featured on the TV show
Mystery Science Theater 3000. He also portrayed:
- a representative of a race of aliens known as the Kanamits in a famous episode of The Twilight Zone titled "To Serve Man" (1962)
- an uncredited bodybuilder in Jerry Lewis' The Nutty Professor (1963)
- Kiel swings a wrench at Napoleon Solo just over 31 minutes into the pilot show (The Vulcan Affair). 22 Sept 1964. Blink and you may miss him. In episode 24, "The Hong Kong Shilling Affair" (15 March 1965), he had a substantial part as bodyguard "Merry", somewhat like his "Jaws" role in James Bond films.
- a humanoid robot in the B-movie The Human Duplicators (1965), which was also later featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000
- The third episode of The Wild Wild West (Oct 1965), Kiel played the mute Voltaire, assistant to a murderous dwarf -Dr. Loveless's henchman Voltaire in several episodes of The Wild Wild West (1965–1966).
- a Frankenstein-style monster (who sings and plays guitar) on an episode of The Monkees (1966)
- The Gilligan's Island episode "Ghost a-Go-Go", as a man masquerading as a ghost to try and scare the castaways off of the island.
- I Dream of Jeannie episode "My Hero?", as a guard trying to execute Maj. Nelson.
- a prison tough in Otto Preminger's Skidoo (1968)
- a paranoid, small-town, anti-government bully in the I Spy episode A Few Miles from Nowhere (1968)
- a spirit of an Amerindian medicine man, called a "Diablero", in one of the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episodes (1974)
- a slime covered boogie man creature, called "Peremalfait", in another of the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episodes (1974)
- Samson, a member of the prisoner football team in The Longest Yard (1974)
- Malak, the Cro-Magnon "God" in the third season of Land of the Lost (1976)
- Reace, a tough guy with sharp gold teeth in Silver Streak (1976)
- the steel-toothed Jaws in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979)
- Capt. Drazak in Force 10 from Navarone (1978)
- a humanoid robot in the Italian movie The Humanoid (1979)
- a "race car driver" in Cannonball Run II (1984)
- "Club," a tough gold miner in Pale Rider (1985)
- Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore (1996)
- himself in the Swedish TV-show Welcome to Sweden together with Verne Troyer (2007)
Kiel also co-wrote, produced, and starred in the family friendly movie
The Giant of Thunder Mountain.
He and
Arnold Schwarzenegger were the original choices to play the title character in the 1977 TV series
The Incredible Hulk. Schwarzenegger was turned down due to his height. He participated in the filming of two episodes, including the TV movie
pilot. During the
shoot, producers decided their Hulk needed to be muscular rather than just towering, and Kiel was dismissed because he possessed more body fat than the producers deemed necessary. According to an interview at Den of geek,
[www.denofgeek.com/movies/181447/the_den_of_geek_interview_richard_kiel.html] Kiel, who sees properly out of only one eye, also reacted badly to the contact lenses used for the role, and found the green makeup difficult to remove, so he did not mind losing the part. All recognizable footage of Kiel was cut; the scenes were then reshot with
Lou Ferrigno.
He is well known in the
UK for his appearance in a commercial for
Shredded Wheat (1980), which can be seen on
YouTube.
[1]
He reprised his role of Jaws with voice and likeness in the 2004 game
Everything or Nothing.
Other
Kiel's distinctive height and features are a result of a hormonal condition known as
acromegaly. Kiel stands 7 feet 1.5 inches (217 cm) tall. He notes in his 2002
autobiography,
Making It Big in the Movies (
ISBN 1-903111-31-5), that he used to state that he was 7 feet and 2 inches (218.44 cm) because it was easier to remember, although he stands over seven foot tall, he suffers from
vertigo, and during the cable car stunt scenes in
Moonraker, a stunt double was used because Kiel refused to be filmed on the top of a cable car at over 2000 ft. high.
In 1992, Kiel suffered a severe head injury in a car accident which has affected his balance. He was, from then on, forced to walk with a cane to support himself (as shown in his appearance in the movie
Happy Gilmore, where he is seen leaning on a person or a cane). He's also been seen using a
scooter or
wheelchair, e.g. in
Welcome to Sweden. He is largely retired from the movie business.
He recently co-authored a biography on the abolitionist
Cassius Marcellus Clay called
Kentucky Lion.
In 2008, Kiel was invited by the Swiss watchmaker
Swatch to Bregenz, Austria to present together with another James Bond villain, Mads Mikkelsen, the Swatch 007 Villain Collection. One of the 22 models of the Collection is dedicated to "Jaws", the iron mouthed villain he played in "The Spy who Loved Me" and in "Moonraker".
He is also a
born-again Christian and testifies on his official website how God saved him from alcoholism
[www.richardkiel.com/testimony.html].
Filmography
Games
Television
Films
See also
