Richard `Jaws` Kiel attends the launch of `Bond, James Bond` exhibition in Vancouver, Canada

15-Jun-2004 • Event

Kiel (pronounced "keel"), who stands seven-foot-two and weighs twice that of an average man, has played a lot of movie roles in his life, but he's best remembered as Jaws, the villain of two James Bond movies, The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).

Even though the second of these was made 25 years ago, Kiel still fills much of his calendar with Jaws-related events. He was in Vancouver this week to promote Bond. James Bond. The Exhibition, which opened on Saturday at Science World, reports The Vancouver Sun.

Kiel, confined to a wheelchair since an auto accident 12 years ago affected his equilibrium, says Jaws -- so named because his character sported steel teeth -- is more popular now than he was in the late 1970s.

"They just came out with a Jaws action figure and a Moonraker presentation package," says Kiel. "The new OO7 Magazine has a 15-page spread on Jaws. I'm in the new James Bond video game that came out in February.

"I don't know why this has happened. Maybe there's a hankering for the old-style Bond movie. Some of the people who were critical of Moonraker when it came out now like it."

As Jaws, Kiel -- who lives in Clovis, Calif. -- does promotional events like the Science World exhibit and autograph shows throughout the year. The day before he arrived in Vancouver, he was in Paris for a Bond television show. He travels to Hawaii next month, and has two trips to the British Isles scheduled later this year.

"Jaws has become an icon very much like James Bond himself," says Kiel, who is married and has four grown children. "I sometimes wonder why this didn't happen 25 years ago, but it's just one of those things where it's taken time to become this popular."

Not bad, considering Jaws was as mute in both Bond films as Silent Bob is in Kevin Smith's movies. His only line of dialogue came at the end of Moonraker, when he toasted his girlfriend with the line, "To us."

Since the 1992 car accident, Kiel has done very little acting, because he cannot stand for very long at one time. In 1994, he starred in the made-in-Vancouver Adam Sandler comedy Happy Gilmore, but used a number of tricks to perform his scenes.

"I had to lean on things throughout the movie," recalls Kiel. "To make it look like I was running after the antagonist in a chase scene, they put me on a dolly where they could push me with people way down low. Then they did it in in slow motion, like a football play."

Kiel now concentrates on writing. He has written two books, his autobiography, Making It Big in the Movies, and a biographical novel co-written with Pamela Wallace, Kentucky Lion: Cassius Marcellus Clay, based on the life of the anti-slavery 19th-century Kentucky legislator.
He is working on a third book.

He has also produced for television and the movies but, unlike most actors, has no plans to direct.

"It's a lot of work," Kiel says. "You're on set before the sun comes up, and you don't leave until midnight."

He would never direct something that he has written, and he wishes this trend of writer-directors would go away.

When he's not writing, Kiel is involved with Historic Properties, a California-based company that restores heritage buildings. The company's most recent project is restoring Fairmount High School in Fairmount, Ind., where actor James Dean went to school.

Bond. James Bond. The Exhibition, which runs to September 12 at Science World, looks at the cars, special effects and gadgets made famous in the 20 James Bond films. Among the props on display are Jaws' steel teeth.

Click here for more details.

Thanks to `BondLover` for the alert.