Richard Kiel 'Jaws' From James Bond Dies at 74
Source: TMZ
http://www.tmz.com/2014/09/10/richard-kiel-james-bond-jaws-dies-at-74/
Read more: http://www.tmz.com
ProudToBeBlueInRhody
(16,399 posts)I knew he had been suffering due to his condition for years. Always heard he was awesome with the fans.
rpannier
(24,330 posts)I'd seen/heard him in a few other movies. His size kind of limited his role possibilities
He did the voice of Vlad in Tangled
I remember him from Silver Streak and Happy Gilmore too.
951-Riverside
(7,234 posts)RIP
7962
(11,841 posts)Kingofalldems
(38,461 posts)C Moon
(12,215 posts)Omaha Steve
(99,669 posts)Marta and I were his tour guides of Omaha's world class Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. He loved the penguins. In the top photo he is in his heavy duty motorized cart. I'm to his left. The bottom photo is a standard pose he made with fans. That is Steve Jr.
He was a favorite to Marta for his work in "The Wild Wild West" and both of us for "Kolchak" and the "Twilight Zone".
More on the TZ and our love for it here: http://www.steveandmarta.com/graveyards/tzcon2002.htm and here: http://www.steveandmarta.com/tzcon2004.htm
He was voted the favorite bond villain several years ago and got the award in London.
He signed an autograph for our granddaughter from his role in the animated Disney film "Tangled". It was Vladamir holding a unicorn.
He was a wonderful person. His books offer some fresh enlightening material.
He was special.
OS
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)I remember seeing him in James Bond as a kid in the movie theater and then many times thereafter for my once a year Bond fest. He was one of the greatest movie villains of all time. And from your story a nice person as well. He lived longer than many with his condition and hope he rests in peace.
Omaha Steve
(99,669 posts)You can see the black folder with the autographed photos in the bottom of the cart.
He turned a corner in the lower level of the desert dome, and started to tip. He warned me in advance it was unstable on incline/decline turns. Be ready to catch me. It happened. I caught him. THAT was not easy.
Omaha Steve
(99,669 posts)The top photo on page three you can see me standing in my tux behind the table keeping an eye on the fan autograph line.
Three pages of photos here: http://www.omahafilmevent.com/past/spy007bond1.htm
BrotherIvan
(9,126 posts)What a cool evening!
whistler162
(11,155 posts)you for Roger Moore and try to bite you!;}
yuiyoshida
(41,833 posts)tabasco
(22,974 posts)It sounds like he was a great guy.
Cooley Hurd
(26,877 posts)TBF
(32,071 posts)that was one of my favorites. Loved the Roger Moore films ...
mikeysnot
(4,757 posts)and was wondering if he was still around, and wake up today to this notice...
He was my fav bond villain when I was growing up, that and Odd job.
How weird.
Strelnikov_
(7,772 posts)reddread
(6,896 posts)I love that movie.
Mr Kiel passed away one mile up the street here.
He was one of the many great highlights of James Bond.
RIP.
ChazII
(6,205 posts)Half-Century Man
(5,279 posts)Sleep gently tall storyteller.
47of74
(18,470 posts)In addition to his work as Jaws on the Roger Moore Bond films Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans fondly remember him for playing the title role in Eegah.
TlalocW
(15,386 posts)I've never seen a Bond movie so I knew him mainly from some of the movies he was in that were riffed by Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Eegah - Where he starred as a caveman who had survived to modern times discovering modern civilization when he stumbled across a highway and fell in love with a woman in a convertible.
The Human Duplicators - a representative of an alien race sent to begin the takeover of Earth by replacing important people with android duplicates.
The Phantom Planet - a completely costumed Kiel, looked kind of like a cosmic bipedal dog, as a prisoner of the citizens of a small planet that the citizens can control in space.
Also as Adam Sandler's ex-boss in, "Happy Gilmore."
He seemed like a good egg.
TlalocW
roamer65
(36,745 posts)He was a good guy!
Archae
(46,337 posts)He bit it to death.
47of74
(18,470 posts)I assume he's now waiting in Heaven's parking lot.
LoisB
(7,212 posts)PSPS
(13,603 posts)Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)Too young to go. Condolences to his family,
Gothmog
(145,359 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,697 posts)Orrex
(63,216 posts)DinahMoeHum
(21,797 posts)It is always more fun to play a bad guy than to be yourself as you can create a character unlike your own and be someone you are not for a change.
Well, I do understand the metal teeth were painful to wear, he could only wear them for a short time before his gag reflex kicked in. But if he had fun playing the roles, that was all that mattered. I kind of wish he could've been in more Bond films.
Arkana
(24,347 posts)"That's two thus far, Shooter!"
gort
(687 posts)I wish to thank Richard Kiel for the many years he devoted to serve man. R.I.P.
Omaha Steve
(99,669 posts)http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/11/richard-kiel?CMP=ema_861
Actor who played the terrifying villain's sidekick, Jaws, in two James Bond films, in which he used his steel teeth to chomp through electric cables and human beings
Ryan Gilbey
The Guardian, Thursday 11 September 2014 10.58 EDT
Richard Kiel in Moonraker, 1979. Photograph: Sportsphoto/Allstar
The James Bond films could turn out magisterial villains well enough: Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Auric Goldfinger. But they were business-class bores compared to the grotesque sidekicks who got their hands dirty snapping necks, hurling bodies from planes and generally doing their masters' gruesome bidding. Oddjob, whose bowler-hat concealed a razor-sharp rim, and Rosa Klebb, who wore the sort of deadly shoes a woman couldn't find at any old Freeman Hardy Willis, set the standard high in the 1960s. But for any cinemagoer coming of age in the 70s, there was no competition for the title of Most Terrifying Bond Villain's Accomplice. It was Jaws, played by the actor Richard Kiel, who has died aged 74.
Jaws was distinguished by his height (Kiel was 7ft 1.5in) and by his gnarled steel teeth, which could chomp through padlocks, electrical cables and, on special occasions, human beings. He was also the only accomplice to appear in two Bond movies. It had been intended that he would die at the end of The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), and his death was even filmed, but positive audience reaction to his scenes ensured that he lived to bite another day.
He was employed on that first occasion by the dastardly Karl Stromberg, who hoped to trigger a nuclear apocalypse before starting a new underwater civilisation. But the balance of horror in the movie was skew-whiff: the third world war seemed like a picnic compared to being cornered at night by Jaws in an Egyptian catacomb, or trying to escape in a clapped-out van while he tore through the bodywork as easily as if it were flatbread.
Hugo Drax, the villain in Moonraker (1979), must have been alerted to Jaws's sterling work in the areas of looming, menacing and murdering when he began casting around for his own henchman for Jaws popped up again to try to finish Bond off in a thrilling confrontation on top of a cable car.
FULL story at link.
Also at link: Peter Bradshaw on Richard Kiel's Jaws: the Bond villain whose bark was worse than his bite
Video: Jaws' best bites