RICHARD KIEL, THE towering actor best known for portraying steel-toothed villain Jaws in a pair of James Bond films, has died aged 74.

Kelley Sanchez, director of communications at Saint Agnes Medical Center, confirmed that Kiel was a patient at the hospital and died. Kiel’s agent, Steven Stevens, also confirmed his death. Both declined to provide further details.

The 7-foot-2-inch performer famously played the cable-chomping henchman who tussled with Roger Moore’s Bond in 1977′s “The Spy Who Loved Me” and 1979′s “Moonraker.” Bond quipped of the silent baddie: “His name’s Jaws. He kills people.”

Despite appearing in several other films and TV shows, such as “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and “The Longest Yard,” the role of Jaws was an iconic one Kiel could never escape.

He told the Daily Mail earlier this year:

To this day, I go out in sunglasses and a hat because people will shout ‘Hey, Jaws!’ at me from across the street.

“The only way I can explain it is that he’s like the Road Runner, which Coyote keeps trying to blow up, but he keeps going.”