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Richard Kiel
Born	September 13, 1939 (1939-09-13) (age 68) Detroit, Michigan, United States
Years active	1960-present
Spouse(s)	Diane
Children	Richard George, Jennifer, Bennett, Christopher
Official site	RichardKiel.com

Richard Dawson Kiel (born September 13, 1939, in Detroit, Michigan) is an American actor best known for his role as Jaws in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979) as well as the video game Everything or Nothing, Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore, and his considerable height.

Kiel made his acting debut in a 1960 Laramie episode called "Street of Hate."

He also acted in an unaired TV-pilot featuring Lee Falk's superhero The Phantom, where Kiel played an assassin called "Big Mike", doing his best to kill the Phantom.

Kiel broke into films in the early 1960s with the B-movie Eegah (1962). Eegah was later featured on the TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000. He also portrayed:

• a representative of a race of aliens known as the Kanamits in a famous episode of The Twilight Zone titled "To Serve Man" (1962)
• an uncredited bodybuilder in Jerry Lewis's The Nutty Professor (1963)
• Kiel swings a wrench at Napoleon Solo just over 31 minutes into the The Man from U.N.C.L.E. pilot show (The Vulcan Affair). 22 Sept 1964. Blink and you may miss him. In episode 24, "The Hong Kong Shilling Affair" (15 March 1965), he had a substantial part as bodyguard "Merry", somewhat like his "Jaws" role in James Bond films.
• a humanoid robot in the B-movie The Human Duplicators (1965), which was also later featured in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000
• a Frankenstein-style monster (who sings and plays guitar) on an episode of The Monkees (1966)
• Dr. Loveless's henchman Voltaire in several episodes of The Wild Wild West (1965–1966)
• roles on episodes of Gilligan's Island and I Dream of Jeannie.
• a prison tough in Otto Preminger's Skidoo (1968)
• a slime covered boogie man creature, called "Peremalfait", in one of the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episodes (1974)
• Samson, a member of the prisoner football team in The Longest Yard (1974)
• Reace, a tough guy in Silver Streak (1976)
• Capt. Drazak in Force 10 from Navarone (1978)
• a humanoid robot in the Italian movie The Humanoid (1979)
• a "race car driver" in Cannonball Run II (1984)
• a "tough guy" in Pale Rider (1985)
• an unlikely fan in the comedy Happy Gilmore (1996)
• himself in the Swedish TV-show Welcome to Sweden together with Verne Troyer (2007)

Kiel also co-wrote, produced, and starred in the family friendly movie The Giant of Thunder Mountain.

He was the original choice to play the title character in the 1977 TV series The Incredible Hulk. He participated in the filming of the TV movie pilot. During the shoot, producers decided their Hulk needed to be muscular rather than just towering, and Kiel was dismissed because he possessed more body fat than the producers deemed necessary. All recognizable footage of Kiel was cut; the scenes were then reshot with Lou Ferrigno.

He is well known in the UK for his appearance in a commercial for Shredded Wheat (1980), which can be seen on YouTube.

He reprised his role of Jaws with voice and likeness in the 2004 game Everything or Nothing.

Kiel's distinctive height and features are a result of a hormonal condition known as acromegaly. Kiel stands 7 feet 1.5 inches (217 cm) tall. He notes in his 2002 autobiography, Making It Big in the Movies (ISBN 1-903111-31-5), that he used to state that he was 7 feet and 2 inches (218.44 cm) because it was easier to remember.

In 1992, Kiel suffered a severe head injury in a car accident which has affected his auto-balance mechanism. He was, from then on, forced to walk with a cane to support his balance, and then eventually to using a scooter or wheelchair. He is largely retired from the movie business.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Richard Kiel

• Richard Kiel at the Internet Movie Database
• The Official Richard Kiel Fan Club
• The Local - Richard Kiel in Sweden