Richard Kiel: Difference between revisions
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| birth_name = Richard Dawson Kiel |
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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|7 |
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|7 13, 1939}} |
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| birth_place = [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]], U.S. |
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Revision as of 21:38, 31 December 2013
Richard Dawson Kiel (born 1939)[1] is an American actor 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 (he also has cameos in many other James Bond videogames). He is also well known as Mr. Larson in the 1996 comedy Happy Gilmore.
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 titular hero.
Kiel broke into films in the early 1960s with the B-movie Eegah (1962), which was later featured on the TV show Elvira's Movie Macabre, Mystery Science Theater 3000, as were The Phantom Planet and The Human Duplicators. He also co-wrote, produced, and starred in the family-friendly movie The Giant of Thunder Mountain. Kiel also appeared as the towering — and lethal — assistant Voltaire to Dr. Miguelito Loveless in first season episodes of The Wild, Wild West. He later appeared in another role, in the episode "The Night of the Simian Terror", as the outcast son of a wealthy family, banished because of birth defects that distorted his body and apparently affected his mind. This episode is significant because it allowed Kiel the opportunity to really act, rather than just look intimidating. Kiel also had a cameo role in a 1961 episode of The Rifleman.
He also played the role of the hitman with metal teeth Reace in the (1976) film Silver Streak. 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. Kiel participated in the filming of 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 a Den of Geek interview,[2] 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, except the one where the Hulk saves the little girl from drowning; the scenes were then re-shot with Lou Ferrigno.
He reprised his role of Jaws in the 2004 game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, supplying his voice and likeness.
Other
Before breaking into film & TV, Kiel worked in numerous jobs including a nightclub bouncer and a cemetery plot salesman.[3]
From 1963 to 1965 Kiel worked as a night school math instructor in Burbank, California.[4]
Kiel's distinctive height and features are a result of a hormonal condition known as acromegaly. In his prime, Kiel stood 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 2 inches (218.44 cm) because it was easier to remember. He suffers from acrophobia, 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 feet high.
In 1992, Kiel suffered a severe head injury in a car accident, which has affected his balance. He has since been 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 has also been seen using a scooter or wheelchair in Welcome to Sweden. Due to this disability he is now retired from the movie business.
He recently co-authored a biography of the abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay called Kentucky Lion.
He is also a born-again Christian. His website states that his religious conversion helped him overcome alcoholism.[5]
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1961 | The Phantom Planet | The Solarite | |
1962 | The Magic Sword | Pinhead | uncredited |
1962 | Eegah! | Eegah | |
1963 | 30 Minutes at Gunsight | uncredited | |
1963 | House of the Damned | The giant | |
1963 | The Nutty Professor | Bodybuilder #1 | uncredited |
1964 | Roustabout | Strong man | uncredited |
1964 | The Nasty Rabbit | ranch foreman | uncredited |
1965 | Two on a Guillotine | Tall man at funeral | |
1965 | The Human Duplicators | Dr. Kolos | |
1965 | Brainstorm | Psychiatric hospital patient | uncredited |
1965 | Lassie's Great Adventure | Chinook Pete | |
1966 | The Las Vegas Hillbillys | unknown role | |
1967 | A Man Called Dagger | Otto | |
1968 | Now You See It, Now You Don't | Nori | |
1968 | Skidoo | Beany | |
1970 | On a Clear Day You Can See Forever | Blacksmith | uncredited |
1972 | Deadhead Miles | unknown role | |
1974 | The Longest Yard | Samson | |
1975 | Barbary Coast | Moose Moran | |
1976 | Flash and the Firecat | Tracker | |
1976 | Gus | Large man | |
1976 | Silver Streak | Reace | |
1977 | The Spy Who Loved Me | Jaws | |
1977 | The Incredible Hulk (1978 TV series) | The Hulk | one scene |
1978 | Force 10 from Navarone | Capt. Drazak | |
1978 | They Went That-A-Way & That-A-Way | Duke | |
1979 | The Humanoid | Golob | |
1979 | Moonraker | Jaws | |
1981 | So Fine | Eddie | |
1983 | Hysterical | Captain Howdy | |
1983 | Phoenix | Steel Hand | |
1984 | Aces Go Places 3 | Jaws | |
1984 | Cannonball Run II | Arnold, Mitsubishi driver | |
1984 | Mad Mission 3: Our Man from Bond Street | Big G | |
1985 | Qing bao long hu men | Laszlo | |
1985 | Pale Rider | Club | |
1989 | The Princess and the Dwarf | unknown role | |
1990 | Think Big | Irving | |
1991 | The Giant of Thunder Mountain | Eli Weaver | |
1996 | Happy Gilmore | Mr. Larson | |
1999 | Inspector Gadget | Jaws, Famous Guy with Metal Teeth | |
2009 | The Awakened | Jasper | |
2010 | The Corpse of Albert Cradette | Albert Cradette | |
2010 | Tangled | Vladamir | Voice work |
Television
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1960 | Laramie | unknown role | episode Street of Hate |
1960 | Klondike | Duff Brannigan | episode Bare Knuckles |
1961 | The Phantom | Big Mike | |
1961 | Thriller | Master Styx | episode Well of Doom |
1961 | The Rifleman | Carl Hazlitt | episode The Decision |
1962 | The Twilight Zone | Kanamit | episode To Serve Man |
1964 | The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | henchman for Mr. Vulcan | episode The Vulcan Affair, uncredited |
1965 | The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | Merry | episode The Hong Kong Shilling Affair |
1965 | I Dream of Jeannie | Ali | episode My Hero |
1966 | Honey West | Groalgo | episode King of the Mountain |
1966 | My Mother the Car | Cracks | episode A Riddler on the Roof |
1966 | The Wild Wild West | Voltaire | episodes The Night the Wizard Shook the Earth, 1965; The Night That Terror Stalked the Town, 1965; The Night of the Whirring Death |
1966 | Gilligan's Island | Spook | episode Ghost-a-Go-Go |
1967 | The Monkees | Monster | episode I Was a Teenage Monster |
1967 | The Monroes | Casmir | episode Ghosts of Paradox |
1968 | I Spy | Tiny | episode A Few Miles West of Nowhere |
1968 | The Wild Wild West | Dimas | episode The Night of the Simian Terror |
1968 | It Takes a Thief | Willie Trion | episode The Galloping Skin Game |
1969 | Daniel Boone | Le Mouche | episode Benvenuto...Who? |
1970 | Disneyland | Luke Brown | episode The Boy Who Stole the Elephant: Part 1 & 2 |
1974 | Kolchak: The Night Stalker | The Diablero | episode Bad Medicine |
1974 | Emergency! | Carlo | episode I'll Fix It |
1974 | Kolchak: The Night Stalker | Peremalfait, the swamp monster | episode The Spanish Moss Murders |
1975 | Switch | unknown role | episode Death Heist |
1976 | Starsky and Hutch | Iggy | episode Omaha Tiger |
1975 – 1976 |
Barbary Coast | Moose Moran | unknown episode, 1975–1976 |
1977 | Land of the Lost | Malak | Third Season – "Survival Kit", "Flying Dutchman" |
1977 | The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries | Manager – 'Haunted House' | episode The Mystery of the Haunted House |
1977 | Young Dan'l Boone | unknown role | episode The Game |
1981 | The Fall Guy | Animal | episode That's Right, We're Bad |
1983 | The Greatest American Hero | mutant | episode Heaven Is In Your Genes |
1983 | Simon & Simon | Mark Horton | episode The Skeleton Who Came Out of the Closet |
1988 | Out of This World | Norman | episode Go West, Young Mayor |
1989 | Superboy | Vlkabok | episode Mr. and Mrs. Superboy |
2000 | Bloodhounds Inc. | Mortimer | episode #5: Fangs for the Memories |
Video games
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2004 | James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing | Jaws | Voice work |
2012 | 007 Legends | Jaws | Likeness only |
See also
References
- ^ Peary, Danny (1991). Cult movie stars. Simon & Schuster. p. 291. ISBN 0-671-74924-2.
- ^ "The Den of Geek interview: Richard Kiel". Den of Geek. 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
- ^ "The Den of Geek interview: Richard Kiel". Den of Geek. 2009-01-06. Retrieved 2010-10-06.
- ^ http://www.modestoradiomuseum.org/ogdens%20kiel.html
- ^ Kiel, Richard. "Richard Kiel's Testimony". Official Richard Kiel Fan Club. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Richard Kiel at IMDb
- Den of Geek interview, January 2009