“The original script had me being killed by the shark,” Kiel said.
“They filmed that and they also filmed an ending where I survive and pop out of the ocean.
“That was one of the big moments for me, watching the blue-collar screening of the movie, The Spy Who Loved Me, and having the reaction of the crowd at the theatre when Jaws popped out of the ocean, survived and swam away. There were hoots and howling, applause. I couldn’t believe it.”
Certainly the best-ever Bond villain—all the more that he was only in two movies and yet you’d swear it was more! For sure, what he said about giving the character “some human characteristics, like perseverance, frustration” was true; part of Jaw’s appeal was that you so well knew he was teeth-nashingly frustrated when his attack was foiled—you almost felt sorry for him, which I guess we did, and why we can also forgive him the direly saccharine turn of character he gets at the end of the equally dire Moonraker.
#RIPRichardKiel (Twitter).