Jaws has jumped the shark
Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2014 2:50 am
Richard Kiel, best known for his role as the steel-toothed villain Jaws in two 1970s James Bond films, has died aged 74.
The statuesque 7ft 2in actor portrayed the mercenary assassin Jaws in the 1977 movie The Spy Who Loved Me and the 1979 thriller Moonraker both opposite Sir Roger Moore as Agent 007. Kiel died on Wednesday afternoon at a hospital in Fresno, California, according to a report on Wednesday by TMZ.
The actor was a patient at Saint Agnes Medical Center and his death was confirmed by Kelley Sanchez, director of communications at the hospital. The towering star recently broke his leg and received treatment at the medical center, according to TMZ
Kiel's other memorable film and television performances included imposing boss Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore starring Adam Sandler, lethal assistant Voltaire in The Wild, Wild West and the extraterrestrial Kanamit in the memorable 1962 The Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man. The Twilight Zone episode that he starred in famously ends with a cryptologist sharing the true nature of the alien's To Serve Man tome as she revaled: 'It's a cookbook!' His character Jaws ranks among the top Bond villains alongside Goldfinger, Ernst Stavro Blofeld and Rosa Klebb. Jaws was known for his enormous size and strength plus those sharp steel teeth that he could use to bite through cables and to chomp on the neck of his victims.
