Jaws is an assassin in the James Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. Jaws’ nickname is due to his strong stainless steel teeth that can bite through virtually anything. The character was played by Richard Kiel. During filming, Kiel wore the metal teeth only for a few minutes at a time because they hurt his mouth.

Richard Kiel as Jaws in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’.

Film biography: Jaws first appeared in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me as a henchman to Karl Stromberg. He would later appear in the sequel Moonraker as a henchman to Hugo Drax. However, in this second appearance, his character was changed from that of a ruthless and unstoppable killing machine to more of a comedy figure. He eventually turns against Drax and helps Bond to defeat him, and also gains a girlfriend.

In addition to having steel teeth, Jaws is also 7’2″ (2.18 m) tall and extremely strong, which forces Bond to be especially ingenuine while fighting him. In combat, Bond finds himself caught in an unbreakable death grip by Jaws, who is about to fatally bite him; Bond escapes by using a broken electric lamp to send an electric shock through the assassin’s teeth to stun him. Jaws also has an uncanny ability to survive any misfortune seemingly unscathed and comes back to challenge Bond again.

In The Spy Who Loved Me, Jaws survives an Egyptian structure’s collapse on top of him, being thrown from a rapidly-moving train, sitting in the passenger seat of a car which drives off a cliff (landing in a hut below, to the owner’s dismay, though the height of the cliff is not established), a battle underwater with a shark, and the destruction of Stromberg’s lair. Most notably, in Moonraker he survives falling several thousand feet without a parachute — granted, he falls through a circus tent and lands in the trapeze net — a crash through a building on top of a runaway cable car, and falling off a waterfall.

In Jaws’ last on-screen appearance in Moonraker, he is seen starting a new beginning with a new found love interest.

Most of the background information on Jaws comes from Christopher Wood’s novelisation of the film The Spy Who Loved Me; published as James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me to differentiate from Ian Fleming’s novel. In Wood’s version, Jaws’s real name is Zbigniew Krycsiwiki and he was born in Kraków, Poland. Krycsiwiki was arrested by the secret police for his part in the “1972 bread riots”. While he was imprisoned the police “beat him with hollow steel clubs encased in thick leather” until they thought he was dead, leaving his jaw broken beyond repair. Krycsiwiki later escaped and stowed aboard one of Stromberg’s vessels. Eventually he was caught, but instead of turning him in, Stromberg hired a prestigious doctor to create an artificial jaw. After 14 operations Krycsiwiki’s jaw was restored using steel components that created two rows of terrifying razor-sharp teeth, although Jaws was left mute.

Jaws dwarfs James Bond.

Since none of the above is actually mentioned in either film, this is not necessarily considered canonical, and Wood contradicts his own continuity when one compares his scripts and his novelisations. In the novelisation of The Spy Who Loved Me Wood specifically states that Jaws is a mute. However, though Jaws remains mute in Wood’s James Bond and Moonraker novelisation, he actually does speak at the end of the film. While it is possible Jaws might have somehow regained his voice between the two adventures, there is nothing on screen or in literary form to suggest how this might have occurred.

In the book, Jaws remains attached to the magnet that Bond dips into the tank, as opposed to the film where Bond releases Jaws from the magnet into the water.

The initial script concluded with Jaws being killed by the shark, but after a rough test screening (where director Lewis Gilbert’s grandson was present), Jaws was so well liked that the scene was changed to have him survive.

See also:

• Bond henchmen