James Bond villain Richard Kiel dies at 74

Richard Kiel, best known for playing the villain in James Bond with the teeth of steel, has died. He was 74.

Kiel broke his leg last week and died in St Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, California, last afternoon, confirmed his agent Steven Stevens Sr.

Kiel's signature character appeared in the Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).

His Bond character of Jaws alongside Roger Moore was inspired by author Ian Fleming's description of a crook who went by the name of Horror and had steel-capped teeth in the 1962 novel The Spy Who Loved Me.

The 7-foot-2 actor also played an alien in the famed 1962 Twilight Zone episode To Serve Man, a hitman in the Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor comedy Silver Streak (1976) and Adam Sandler's boss in the classic golf comedy Happy Gilmore (1996).

The Detroit native also stood tall as bad guys in TV shows including The Man From U N C L E, The Wild, Wild West and Kolchak: The Night Stalker and auditioned for the role as the mean green guy in the CBS series The Incredible Hulk, a

role that later went to Lou Ferrigno.

Kiel also worked as a nightclub bouncer and cemetery plot salesman before landing his first acting gig as a character called Bare Knuckles in the NBC series Klondike.

Image: Richard Kiel arrives for the World Premiere of the Bond film Die Another Day in London's Royal Albert Hall in 2002. Photograph: Kieran Doherty/Reuters