Richard Kiel (Detroit, Michigan, USA, September 13, 1939. - Fresno, California, USA, September 10, 2014)
Kiel was an American actor whose career spanned for sixty years. He was most widely known as Jaws, the bad guy with a set of steel teeth from the James Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979). Before he started to act, he worked as a salesman of grave plots, bouncer in nightclubs and math teacher in night school. His first roles were in the TV series Klondike (1960), The Twilight Zone (1962) and Lassie (1963). Due to his height (217 cm) and a characteristic look, which were a result of a hormonal syndrome, his choice of roles was limited. In most of his film from the 1960’s he was unaccredited and had only smaller roles, with the exception of Eegah (1962), Lassie's Great Adventure (1963) and A Man Called Dagger (1968). In the 1970’s he landed some bigger roles and attracted attention with his role in the drama The Longest Yard (1974). Afterwards, he starred in the action film Flash and the Firecat (1976), Silver Streak (1976) by Arthur Hiller and became internationally famous as the bad guy in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) by Lewis Gilbert. His most favorite role was the one in the war drama Force 10 from Navarone (1978) by Guy Hamilton. After the less successful comedy They Went That-A-Way & That-A-Way (1978) and the sci-fi L'umanoide (1979), he worked again with the director Lewis Gilbert on another James Bond film, Moonraker (1979). In the 1980’s he chased Ryan O'Neal as a debt collector in the comedy So Fine (1981). In that decade he starred in many B productions, such as the action comedy Cannonball Run II (1984) by Hal Needham and the western Pale Rider (1985) by Clint Eastwood. His last more important films were in the comedy Happy Gilmore (1996) and the voiceover in the animated film Tangled (2010). In addition to his acting career, he wrote, produced and acted in the film The Giant of Thunder Mountain (1991). In 2002, he published his autobiography “Making It Big in the Movies” and he was the co-author of the biography of the American politician Cassius Marcellus Clay who fought against slavery.
Filmography:
BloodHounds, Inc (2011) (TV series, 1 episode)
Tangled (2010) (voice)
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2003) (voise, videogame)
BloodHounds, Inc. #5: Fangs for the Memories (2000)
Inspector Gadget (1999)
Happy Gilmore (1996)
The Giant of Thunder Mountain (1991)
Superboy (1989) (TV series, 1 episode)
Think Big (1989)
The Princess and the Dwarf (1989)
Out of This World (1988) (TV series, 1 episode)
Pale Rider (1985)
Qing bao long hu men (1985)
Cannonball Run II (1984)
Zui jia pai dang 3: Nv huang mi ling (1984)
Phoenix (1983)
Simon & Simon (1983) (TV series, 1 episode)
Hysterical (1983)
The Fall Guy (1981) (TV series, 1 episode)
So Fine (1981)
Moonraker (1979)
L'umanoide (1979)
They Went That-A-Way & That-A-Way (1978)
Force 10 from Navarone (1978)
The Incredible Hulk (1977) (TV series, 1 episode)
Young Dan'l Boone (1977) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977) (TV series, 1 episode)
Silver Streak (1976)
Land of the Lost (1976) (TV series, 2 episodes)
Gus (1976)
Flash and the Firecat (1976)
McMillan & Wife (1976) (TV series, 1 episode)
Starsky and Hutch (1976) (TV series, 1 episode)
Barbary Coast (1975-1976) (TV series, 14 episode)
Switch (1975) (TV series, 1 episode)
Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) (TV series, 2 episode)
Emergency! (1974) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Longest Yard (1974)
Deadhead Miles (1973)
Disneyland (1970) (TV series, 2 episode) Part 1 (1970)
The Boy Who Stole the Elephant (1970) (TV)
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) (nepotpisan)
Daniel Boone (1969) (TV series, 1 episode)
It Takes a Thief (1968) (TV series, 1 episode)
Skidoo (1968)
Now You See It, Now You Don't (1968) (TV)
A Man Called Dagger (1968)
The Wild Wild West (1965-1968) (TV series, 4 episodes)
I Spy (1968) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Monroes (1967) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Monkees (1967) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966)
Gilligan's Island (1966) (TV series, 1 episode)
My Mother the Car (1966) (TV series, 1 episode)
Honey West (1966) (TV series, 1 episode)
I Dream of Jeannie (1965) (TV series, 1 episode)
Brainstorm (1965) (uncredited)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964-1965) (TV series, 2 episodes)
The Human Duplicators (1965)
Two on a Guillotine (1965) (uncredited)
The Nasty Rabbit (1964) (unciredited)
Roustabout (1964) (uncredited)
Lassie's Great Adventure (1963)
The Nutty Professor (1963) (uncredited)
House of the Damned (1963)
Lassie (1963) (TV series, 2 episodes)
30 Minutes at Gunsight (1963) (TV)
Eegah (1962)
The Twilight Zone (1962) (TV series, 1 episode)
The Phantom Planet (1961)
The Rifleman (1961) (TV series, 1 episode)
King of Diamonds (1961) (TV series, 1 episode)
Laramie (1961) (TV series, 1 episode)
Thriller (1961) (TV serise, 1 episode)
The Phantom (1961) (TV)
Klondike (1960) (TV series, 1 episode)
The D.I. (1957) (uncredited)