“Well, here’s to us.” — Jaws in Moonraker
Sad to read tonight that Richard Kiel, perhaps best known as the villainous Jaws in two Roger Moore 007 movies, died this afternoon.
He was my 51st dinner interviewee. We met in Washington, DC, last November while he was taking part in a James Bond party at the Spy Museum. He didn’t mind being known as the mostly silent assassin Jaws. Rather, he embraced it, and told me he was often at fan conventions and other events, playing up his character by willingly posing with people in all manner of menacing poses (after our dinner, he pretended to crush my head in one shot).
Richard — I use the personal attribution not because he was a friend (we only met once), but because that’s my writing style — was a charming man, patient with my questions, possessing a good sense of humor and ready with a host of wonderful anecdotes about becoming an actor and his time in television and the movies.
But he was also something of a history buff, having researched and written a novel/biography of the 19th century anti-slavery crusader Cassius Clay — the man that boxer Muhammad Ali was named after before he switched to Islam. It’s a fascinating read, and Richard’s love for the subject was obvious. He was perhaps at his most animated when he got to switch the conversation from his Hollywood stories and on to the topic of Clay and his life story, and I’m happy to have learned about it from Richard.
Click here or on the picture above to read about my dinner with Richard.