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Spotlighting Richard Kiel

by Dale Pierce

January 2006

For films starring Richard Kiel
on (re)Search my Trash
click here !

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Some actors were just not cut out to be dashing romantic leads:

Rondo Hutton, Sidney Greenstreet, Fernando Sancho, Victor Israel ...

Their faces, body size or other attributes made them perfect villains or knock-off material to be killed, but never a leading pretty boy role.

Detroit's Richard Kiel, a giant in the true sense of the word, evidently realized from the beginning he would be given a multitude of roles as monsters, villains and freaks, due to his huge height and width. Though it seems a bit far fetched (and maybe not) some magazines have listed him as seven feet high.

Whatever his height, Kiel made early appearances, sometimes credited and sometimes not, in a variety of monster films and monster spoofs. He played a body builder in the original version of The Nutty Professor (1963), a giant (now there's a surprise) in House of the Damned (1963) and a caveman in the most forgettable film ever, titled Eegah! (1962). He also played (uncredited) as the tall man at the funeral scene in  the haunted house flick, Two On A Guillotine (1965).

It was not til years later that he started to make a name for himself, most notably as Jaws, the repeatedly menacing villain in varied James Bond films (The Spy Who Loved Me in 1977 and Moonraker in 1979). A monster of a man, with brute strength and metal teeth, this role led him to international recognition and perhaps a bit of typecasting he was not ever to totally shake. He still makes the convention circuits today, where more often than not he is billed on the advertisements as Jaws rather than by his real name.

Kiel also played the gangsterish Mr Eddie, a nightclub owner in So Fine (1981). This was another fairly forgettable film, with Kiel providing some of the few redeeming moments in the production. Even an Ennio Morricone score didn't do much for this at the box office. Yet in spite of the film's flaws, he was able to show a convincingly different side to his acting ability, as a funny, rather than frightening villain.

In Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider (1985), he was even more interesting as the muscleman for the corrupted rich mining magnate. Starting off in what seemed to be a typical Kiel role as giant thug, he turned around when bested by Clint Eastwood in a fight. He later turns good and saves Eastwood's life during a shootout at the mining camp, when he prevents him from being ambushed.

For more on this actor, visit http://www.richardkiel.com which will tell you far more about this man than this short article is intended to.

The webpage has varied photos, ways to contact the actor, merchandise for sale, convention dates and film news.

Kiel has, in recent years, taken a turn toward religion and appeared on a number of Christian talk shows. He has also taken to writing.

As for myself, my favorite Kiel role would not be that of Jaws, but as Captain Howdy (the name is a spoof on the demon/ghost working the ouija board in The Exorcist, with the soon-to-be-possessed Linda Blair). This role came in the little known film, Hysterical (1983, by Chris Bearde), a vehicle designed to push the comedy team of The Hudson Brothers as Raiders Of the Lost Arc/Ghost Hunter comedians, but never really brought them to stardom like they had hoped.

In this comedy which spoofs the aforenoted Exorcist, as well as Dracula, Friday The 13th and many other movies, Kiel's Captain Howdy is a zombie, a long dead lighthouse keeper on an Oregon coastal town.

While it received a good deal of air play on cable tv in the 1980s, it seems somewhat hard to find now.

In any case, Richard Kiel remains one of the most prolific big men to contribute his part to screen history.

 

© by Dale Pierce


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Thanks for watching !!!



 

 

In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!