Almost all the obituaries mention his work as Jaws in the two James Bond movies, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker - the second film I count as genre because it takes place in outer space - but my two favorite performances of his are on The Twilight Zone in To Serve Man and a very funny turn in Burt Reynolds' The Longest Yard. His other roles in genre productions include Inspector Gadget, The Princess and the Dwarf, Superboy, Out of this World, Phoenix, Hysterical, The Humanoid, The Incredible Hulk, Land of the Lost, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, My Mother the Car, I Dream of Jeannie, The Human Duplicator, The Phantom Planet and the starring role in Eegah, a movie that got the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment.
I never met Mr. Kiel, but I do remember seeing him as a guest on Letterman back in the 1980s, where he was nice and funny. Best wishes to the family and friends of Richard Kiel, from a fan. He is never to be forgotten.
"I think I broke his freakin' neck!"
ReplyDeleteMan, when you're 7'2", you HAVE to take everything with a sense of humor, don't you? It would be like everything is built for children. Stranger in a strange land, indeed.
Human Duplicators and Phantom Planet also got the MST3K treatment, but Eegah! was the best of them, notwithstanding Tommy Kirk and his scrunched up face.
I remember a Letterman appearance in which one of Dave's first questions was about other people's reaction to Kiel's unusual appearance. Kiel broke into a huge smile after saying, "Well, Dave, lots of people have a gap in their front teeth!"
ReplyDeleteHi, Nan, that's the appearance I remember as well. Two actors had appearances on Letterman that changed my opinion of them very much for the better: Richard Kiel and Ricardo Montalban. Both of them were funny, charming guys.
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