When you talk dentistry with Richard "Jaws" Kiel, you realise just how much he suffered for the sake of James Bond. Those teeth he wore in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker took a small eternity to make and were excruciating to wear. "They were nauseating," he says. "They were up in the roof of your mouth and gave you a gagging effect - you felt like you were going to be sick. It did add to the stoic part of my character - to keep from throwing up."

Kiel was only able to wear the teeth for a minute or two at most. "They were kind enough to have a lady with a tupperware container with some cotton at the bottom. As soon as the director called cut, out they came. She would take them and rinse them with mouthwash and leave them to dry off for the next scene."

Producer Cubby Broccoli told him his idea for Jaws: "The character we have in mind is going to have teeth like tools, maybe like a shark. They'll be made out of steel and he'll kill people with them." Broccoli had originally recruited John Chambers (famous for making Mr Spock's ears for Star Trek and an Oscar winner for Planet of the Apes) to design the teeth. Chambers's design didn't pass muster, and so Broccoli sent Kiel out to see a dentist near Pinewood Studios for a fitting. "The guy ended up successfully making one set. He told me he couldn't make any more - it was just too difficult." During shooting, the teeth went into a safe each night. No, Kiel isn't quite sure of their whereabouts today, although he thinks they are in a Bond museum somewhere.

Kiel started his film career in the early 1960s, after working as a door-to-door salesman and a nightclub bouncer. Early film roles included bit parts in the Jerry Lewis comedy The Nutty Professor and alongside Elvis Presley in Roustabout. He spent 17 years as a bit-part actor before he met Broccoli.

Kiel, who was appearing at the time alongside Gene Wilder in Silver Streak, was initially hesitant about toothing up. He wanted to break away from rent-a-giant parts and play - as he puts it - "regular henchman or villain roles". However, he eventually managed to talk Broccoli into making Jaws a sympathetic, three-dimensional character rather than just a titan with gleaming metallic molars. "If I was to play this role, I told him I'd want to give this character who kills people with his teeth a human side to make him more interesting, maybe have him be persevering and frustrated, so he wouldn't become boring. A guy killing people with his teeth could easily become over the top."

But there's more to Kiel's career than wearing the teeth in two Bond movies. For example, he has recently co-written a historical novel called Kentucky Lion: The True Story of Cassius Clay (about the abolitionist, rather than the boxer), and he is also shortly to be seen playing "an intellectual badass" in new film The Portal. Nonetheless, Kiel accepts that playing Jaws is what he is likely to be best remembered for. And, yes, he is very gratified at being voted "Favourite James Bond Film Character" in a poll run by HMV. He received 30% of the votes counted - and considering he was up against Oddjob, Q, M and Miss Moneypenny, he sees that as a ringing endorsement. "I was a big fan of the Bond movies. I grew on Dr No, Goldfinger, Thunderball - all the gals and the gadgets," he says. "To find out that with the general public, I got a 30% vote with the second place being 16% - that was incredible for me!"

• Richard Kiel will be taking part in a Q&A at a screening of Moonraker on Sunday at BFI Southbank