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Revision as of 06:08, 21 January 2006
Richard Kiel (born September 13, 1939, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American actor best known for his role as Jaws in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.
Kiel broke into films in the early 1960s with the B-movie Eegah (1962). He also portrayed an alien on a famous episode of The Twilight Zone titled "To Serve Man" (1962), a Frankenstein-style monster (who sings and plays guitar) on an episode of The Monkees (1966), a humanoid robot in the Italian movie The Humanoid (1979), a "tough guy" in Pale Rider (1985), and an unlikely fan in the comedy Happy Gilmore (1996).
Although usually cast for his physical presence, Kiel is capable of acting with depth and sensitivity. For example, in the Hugo Grimaldi film The Human Duplicators (1964), Kiel portrayed Kolos, a giant alien sent to Earth to prepare the way for an alien invasion by making android duplicates of human beings (who were then killed). Kiel portrays Kolos as a stoic but sensitive being, who follows his orders even though he does not like them. Out of compassion, he refuses an order to duplicate (and kill) the daughter (Dolores Faith, of Phantom Planet and Mutiny In Outer Space) of a famous scientist (George MacReady, from Soul Of A Monster and The Alligator People), and this compassion is his downfall. In the final scene, Kolos admits defeat to the humans who have foiled his plan, but Kiel's delivery is nuanced with touches of sadness and respect as he admits that he himself is an android, and the audience can't help but sympathize with the alien as he returns to his masters, the "galaxy beings", where we know he will be destroyed for his failure.
Kiel's distinctive height and features are a result of a hormonal condition known as acromegaly. Kiel stands at 7 ft and 1 3/4 inches (217.8 cm). He notes in his 2002 autobiography, Making It Big in the Movies (ISBN 1903111315), that he used to state that he was 7 ft and 2 inches because it was easier to remember.
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