[tps_footer]Actor Richard Kiel, acclaimed for playing the villain with the steel tooth, Jaws in James Bond movie series, died at the age of 74.
He died at Saint Agnes medical centre in Fresno, California on wednesday afternoon, the hospital confirmed.
The alpine 7ft 2in (218cm) actor died a week after breaking his leg – it is still not known if it lead to his death.
Born in Detroit, he appeared in TV shows and films in the 1960s.
He started working as a bouncer in a Los Angeles nightclub and was later recruited by Arch Hall for the lead role in Eegah (1962), about teens who discover a rampaging prehistoric caveman. Apart from acting jobs and writing screenplays he also worked as a cemetery plot salesman and night school maths tutor.
He was tapped to play Hulk in the television series The Incredible Hulk but was deemed not “bulky” enough. Kiel was reportedly relieved because the full contact lenses required by the role bothered him.
He turned down the role of Darth Vader in order to play Jaws, which offered him greater acting potential.
He first appeared in an episode of the Western series Laramie called ‘Street of Hate’ and later gained fame as one of the most memorable villains in Roger Moore’s best Bond films: The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977 and Moonraker in 1979. Bond mocked the silent baddie: “His name’s Jaws. He kills people.”
He also performed Mr Larson, the bullying golf spectator in Adam Sandler’s 1996 comedy flick Happy Gilmore with Adam Sandler, and adapted his most famous line: “And you can count, on me, waiting for you in the parking lot.”
Kiel faced a truck accident several years ago and had difficulty walking, although he remained active on the autograph circuit for avid Bond fans. The accident forced him to walk with a cane and later he used a motorised wheelchair. He published an autobiography in 2002 titled “Making It Big in the Movies.”
Kiel’s television credits as the bad guy include roles in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 1964, The Wild Wild West in 1965 and Kolchak: The Night Stalker in 1974. Despite appearing in several other films and TV shows, such as “The Longest Yard,” the role of Jaws was a classic that Kiel could never escape.
“To this day, I go out in sunglasses and a hat because people will shout ‘Hey, Jaws!’ at me from across the street,” he told the Daily Mail earlier this year. “The only way I can explain it is that he’s like the Road Runner, which Coyote keeps trying to blow up, but he keeps going.”
Kiel’s other memorable role includes extraterrestrial Kanamit in “The Twilight Zone.” He also reprised the character of Jaws for several James Bond video games and voiced the thug Vlad in the animated Disney film “Tangled.”
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