Probabl;y best known as “Jaws” in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker (probably his highest profile films), I remember him from the bottom-of-the-barrel Eegah! The Name Written in Blood (which showed up much later on MST3K) and The Human Duplicators (also MST3K) and as the head Kanamit in the classic Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man”*
He had lots of TV roles and he was in the costume of the alien in The Phantom Planet, which was also MST3K-ized. He was, like Arnold Schwartzeneggar**, more remarkable for his imposing height and bulk than his acting ability, but he (like Arnold) managed to eventually parlay that into some high-profile roles and escape the bargain-basement movies and TV.
He was 74! Hard to believe.
*In the original Damon Knight short story, the Kanamit looked like oversized pigs, kinda like the Gamorrean Guards in Star Wars. I’m glad they didn’t go with that in the makeup for TZ
**Both Kiel and Arnold were apparently considered for TV’s The Incredible Hulk, and they actually shot scenes with Kiel before getting Lou Ferrigno for the role.
Kiel was also approached for Chewbacca but he wasn’t about to work for scale at the time or wear a full costume.
HUh. Looked for a previous thread, but didn’t see that one – I was out yesterday.
Really great sight gag: In “So Fine,” Kiel had to show someone his driver’s license and his picture was from the nose down.
Same movie (I think): he was a hired thug and drove his boss around town with his shoulders and head sticking up through the sun roof of the car.
I really liked him in Happy Gilmore.
Wow. Exactly five years ago tomorrow, I posited Who is the oldest seven footer?.
n/m. Didn’t read the OP closely.
This has been bugging me for days, and I thought it was so obvious a joke that somewhere it must have been made, but I can’t find it anywhere on Google.
What if “To Serve Man” wasn’t really a cookbook: they’d just translated it wrong. think about it: if that was the plan, why let that kind of book fall into your victims hands? Given the era, it was more likely a hint, and “To Serve Man” was really a gay sex manual. And the aliens were just a bunch of friendly, 7-foot tall power bottoms.
