Richard Dawson Kiel (September 13, 1939 – September 10, 2014) was an American actor. Standing 7 feet 1.5 inches (2.17 m) tall, he was notable for portraying Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), and Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore (1996). Other notable films include The Longest Yard (1974), Silver Streak (1976), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), Cannonball Run II (1984), Pale Rider (1985) and Tangled (2010). On television, he portrayed the giant alien in the highly regarded 1962 Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man".
Early life, family and education Kiel was born on September 13, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, the son of George Albert Kiel (1905–1958) and Mary May Kiel (née Mobbs, 1915–2008). His extraordinary height was the result of a condition caused by an excess of human growth hormone. When he was nine years old, his family moved to the Greater Los Angeles area, where Kiel graduated from Baldwin Park High School.
Career Kiel's career included films, television and co-authoring books. However, before this, Kiel worked in several jobs, including as a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman, a nightclub bouncer, and a cemetery plot salesman. From 1963 to 1965, Kiel worked as a night school mathematics instructor at the William B. Ogden Radio Operational School in Burbank, California.
Television Kiel appeared in many television shows throughout the 1960s to the 1980s, including the 1962 Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man", where he portrayed the 9-foot-tall (2.7 m) Kanamit aliens. Other TV series he appeared in included Laramie ("Street of Hate", 1961), I Dream of Jeannie, The Rifleman ("The Decision", 1961), Honey West, Gilligan's Island, The Monkees, Daniel Boone, Emergency!, Starsky & Hutch, Land of the Lost, Simon & Simon, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and The Fall Guy.
Due to his size, Kiel was often cast in villainous roles. He appeared as Voltaire, the towering mute-but-lethal assistant to Dr. Miguelito Loveless in three first-season episodes of The Wild Wild West. In the Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode "The Vulcan Affair" (1964), Kiel appeared as a guard in Vulcan's plant and portrayed Merry in "The Hong Kong Shilling Affair". In 1967, he played a monster in The Monkees episode "I Was a Teenage Monster". In 1968 he appeared in an episode of The Wild Wild West titled "The Night of the Simian Terror", as Dimas, the outcast son of a wealthy family, banished because of birth defects that distorted his body and apparently affected his mind. In 1977, Kiel and Arnold Schwarzenegger were both considered for playing the Hulk in the American television series The Incredible Hulk. After Schwarzenegger was turned down due to his height, Kiel started filming the pilot. However, the producers quickly decided they wanted a more muscular Hulk rather than the towering Kiel, so he was dismissed. Kiel later said he did not mind losing the part, because he could only see out of one eye. He reacted badly to the contact lenses he had to wear for the role. He also found the green makeup unpleasant and difficult to remove. His scenes were then reshot with Lou Ferrigno.
Film Kiel broke into films in the early 1960s with Eegah (1962), which was later featured on Elvira's Movie Macabre and Mystery Science Theater 3000, as were The Phantom Planet (1961) and The Human Duplicators (1965). He also produced, co-wrote and starred in The Giant of Thunder Mountain (1991). He also had a brief non-speaking appearance leaving a gym in the Jerry Lewis movie The Nutty Professor (1963). Kiel has played a metal-toothed villain in a few films. First, he played Reace in the comedy-thriller film Silver Streak (1976). The James Bond film producers spotted Kiel in Barbary Coast, and thought he was ideal for the role of Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), then the next Bond film, Moonraker (1979). Jaws is one of the few Bond villains to appear in two Bond films. Kiel's scenes were often shot with his mouth closed or briefly showing his dangerous smile; Kiel explained his metal prosthetic mouthpiece was extremely painful to wear and could only be used for a few minutes at a time. The Spy Who Loved Me was the first of three films that Kiel appeared in alongside Barbara Bach in the late 1970s. The other two were Force 10 from Navarone and The Humanoid. Kiel reprised his role of Jaws in the video game James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, supplying his voice and likeness. He used his size for comedic effect, as the "best-dressed giant" Mr. Eddie, in So Fine (1981) starring Ryan O'Neal. Kiel had a supporting role in the Western film Pale Rider (1985). Acting as the main antagonist's henchman, he redeems his character's status by saving the hero from a gunshot to the back. As Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore (1996), Kiel exchanges several one-liners with both Adam Sandler's Happy and Christopher McDonald's Shooter McGavin. Kiel took a quieter profile after Happy Gilmore's release, becoming semi-retired, but he recorded a role for the Disney film Tangled (2010): Vlad, a surprisingly softhearted thug who collects ceramic unicorns.
Other work With Pamela Wallace, Kiel co-authored Kentucky Lion (2007), a biography of the abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay. In 2002, Kiel published his autobiography, Making It Big in the Movies.
Personal life and death Kiel's first marriage was to Faye Daniels in 1960. They divorced in 1973. One year later, he married Diane Rogers. Rogers stated that, despite being 5 ft 1 in (1.55 m), she and her husband "[saw] eye to eye on so many things." Their marriage lasted for 40 years, until Kiel's death. Kiel and Rogers had four children and nine grandchildren. Kiel was a born-again Christian, stating on his website that his religious conversion helped him to overcome alcoholism. On September 10, 2014, three days before his 75th birthday, Kiel died at St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, California, from heart disease.
Filmography
Features
Television
Video games
References
External links
Richard Kiel at IMDb Richard Kiel at Find a Grave
