AFTER 17 years in showbiz, it was a role he could really get his teeth into.

Richard Kiel played Jaws, the evil henchman in two of the James Bond films. And at 7ft 2in he was head and shoulders above all the other villains who tried to kill the international superspy.

Now the larger than life actor is preparing to visit a 007 exhibition at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.

A previous Bond display at the museum featured the razor sharp steel teeth that Jaws used to kill his victims.

The character first appeared in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me, starring Sir Roger Moore, and proved so popular with cinemagoers around the world that he returned two years later in Moonraker.

During his visit to Beaulieu 73-year-old Richard will be signing copies of his autobiography, Making It Big in Movies.

He will be accompanied by French actress Blanche Ravalec, who played the pig-tailed blonde Jaws fell in love with in Moonraker.

Richard became a full-time actor in 1960, appearing in The Twilight Zone and The Man From Uncle before landing the part of Jaws.

His character’s deadly dentures could cut through steel cables, although in reality the producers used liquorice to create the effect.

During the films Jaws fell from a moving train, drove off a cliff and crashed into a house below, and plunged from a plane without a parachute. But he always survived, much to the delight of the audience.

Richard is visiting Beaulieu on May 26 to view Bond in Motion, the largest official collection of vehicles from the 007 movies.

The Detroit-born actor was praised by Sir Roger in his 2008 autobiography My Word Is My Bond.

He wrote: “Richard is so kind, so gentle and indeed an accomplished writer as well as an actor, whereas Jaws is a hired killer without much soul. Jaws did have a dry sense of humour thanks to the little nuances that Richard gave him.”

Sir Roger revealed that Richard has a fear of heights and once said: “I don’t even like being this tall.”