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Richard Kiel

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Richard Kiel

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American actor (1939–2014)

OverviewAI-generated

Richard Dawson Kiel was an American actor, television actor, and screenwriter. Born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 13, 1939, he was a male human who spoke and wrote in English. His professional career began in 1960 and concluded in 2011. Kiel was a Christian and had four children.

He suffered from acromegaly and died of a myocardial infarction in Fresno on September 10, 2014. His manner of death was natural causes. Kiel is known for his work in film and television, with his name in his native language recorded as Richard Kiel.

Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, TMDb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Film & TV

Detroit, Michigan, USA

Richard Dawson Kiel (September 13, 1939 - September 10, 2014) was a huge, and intimidating, European-American character actor, voice artist, and producer. Best known for his role as the steel-toothed Jaws in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), and as Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore. Other notable films include The Longest Yard (1974), Silver Streak (1976), Force 10…

Known for

  • Happy Gilmore 2 — Mr. Larson (archive footage)2025
  • The Twilight Zone: A 60th Anniversary Celebration — Kanamit (archive footage)2019
  • Top Gear: 50 Years of Bond Cars — Self2012
  • Tangled — Vlad (voice)2010
  • Welcome to Sweden2007
  • Best Ever Bond — Self / Jaws2002
  • Inside 'The Spy Who Loved Me' — Self2000
  • Inside 'Moonraker' — Self2000
  • Inspector Gadget — Famous Big Guy with Silver Teeth1999
  • The Secrets of 007 — Self1997

via TMDB

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Gender
male
Citizenship
United States
Place of birth
Detroit
Place of death
Fresno
Occupation
film producer
Languages spoken
English language
Native language
English language
Religion
Christianity
Official website
www.richardkiel.com
Image
Richard Kiel 2.JPG
Height
218
Number of children
4
Show 11 more facts
Commons category
Richard Kiel
date of birth
1939-09-13
date of death
2014-09-10
medical condition
acromegaly
cause of death
myocardial infarction
manner of death
natural causes
start of work period
1960-00-00
birth name
Richard Dawson Kiel
end of work period
2011-00-00
name in native language
Richard Kiel
writing language
English language
Sources (10)

via Wikidata · CC0

~6 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Richard Dawson Kiel (September 13, 1939 – September 10, 2014) was an American actor. Standing 7 feet 1.5 inches (2.17 m) tall, he was notable for portraying Jaws in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), and Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore (1996). Other notable films include The Longest Yard (1974), Silver Streak (1976), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), Cannonball Run II (1984), Pale Rider (1985) and Tangled (2010). On television, he portrayed the giant alien in the highly regarded 1962 Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man".

Early life, family and education

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Richard Kiel” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (3)