Richard Kiel , the man who played one of the most endearing James Bond villains ever, died yesterday in Fresno, Calif., at the age of 74. Cause of death for the 7-foot-2 genial giant was not given.
I’m a huge James Bond fan. One month for a newspaper story I was working on, I watched every Bond movie ever made until that time. And the thing you notice right away about Bond villains is that they don’t come back. Oh, Ernst Blofeld had some longevity … and yet the cat-scratching evildoer was played by someone different in every single movie.
Kiel’s Jaws, as far as I know, is the only Bond villain to ever face off against 007 twice. And even more outlandishly, he survived—the only evildoer to ever revoke Bond’s license to kill.
Kiel made his first appearance as Jaws in 1977’s The Spy Who Loved Me, one of Roger Moore’s best turns as Bond. Kiel chewed some serious scenery (in some cases literally) and, despite the presence of Barbara Bach, almost stole the show. He didn’t talk much, but Kiel gave the metal-mouthed assassin some serious charisma—even when he’s taking down part of an ancient Egyptian temple.
He made a return in 1979 in Moonraker. It was the worst Bond movie ever made—a film so abysmal that you’d be excused if you suspected SPECTRE of funding the thing. Besides Moore himself, Kiel was the only thing to make Moonraker watchable. And as a reward, he not only survived, but got the girl. Such was the audience’s love of Kiel that they couldn’t kill him off.
Appropriate, really, give that Kiel was reportedly really, really nice—a My Little Pony character in the body of a 7-foot-2 giant. He was also a committed Christian—a faith that he credited for curing him of alcoholism. On his own website, Kiel gave his testimony that detailed his struggles with alcohol. Here’s how he was cured:
“I had become a Christian when I was about nine years old, reconfirmed that commitment at a youth camp at age 12 and was baptized at the age of twenty-seven. As a “Christian” I couldn’t understand why I was addicted and bound to such a negative habit. Early one morning, I was watching a program on one of the Christian networks and learned that the Bible said that I could join together in prayer with other Christians and God could free me from that addiction. I prayed along with the guest on the program, and although nothing seemed to happen (there were no bells or flashing lights) I found that I had no more overwhelming desire for, and was no longer addicted to alcohol.”
An honest-to-goodness miracle, according to Kiel—to go along with what was, in some ways, a miraculous career. Rest in peace, big man.
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