Richard Kiel

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.^[7] His scenes were then reshot with Lou Ferrigno.^[9]

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.

Features

Television

Video games