Work has not dried up for North-East 'Jaws' lookalike Gary Tiplady despite the sad death of Bond baddie Richard Kiel, last year. He talks to Gavin Havery

GEORDIE Jaws Gary Tiplady is a busy man, with his work impersonating the steel-toothed villain from the Bond movies still proving lucrative.

He was in Wales on New Year’s Eve and already has plans for three gigs in the United States, another in Germany with a commercial in Norway for 2015.

The 54-year-old, from Newcastle, said the death of Kiel, who played Jaws, opposite Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, did not mean he was no longer in demand.

He says: “Jaws is iconic, same as Oddjob. The actor who played him has been dead for years, but it doesn’t affect that sort of villain’s popularity.

“Nobody has heard of all the latest baddies. It is Blofeld, Oddjob, Scaramanga, Jaws and we get all of the bookings.

“The real Jaws never did lookalike work either. He never did appearances at parties. He only did conventions and he never wore the teeth.”

Gary does wear the teeth, which cost him £3,000 and were made from titanium at Pinewood Studios.

They are an exact replica of those used in The Spy Who Loved Me, but while Kiel could only wear for them for a couple of minutes before gagging, Gary wears his for hours.

Gary, who is married and has a 25-year-old daughter, says: “It is water off a ducks back for me, because with James Bond parties I have worked all over the world.”

At 7ft 3ins, Gary is an inch taller than the screen Jaws, who died in September, aged 74, and both men share the same medical condition.

Acromegaly is where the pituitary gland at the base of the brain produces growth hormone at a high level and US president Abraham Lincoln was said to be a sufferer.

Gary, was born in Wallsend, coming in at 16lbs, and was so large they had to use the local butcher’s scales to weigh him and he had to wear clothes meant for a six-month-old.

Although he was a big baby, when he left school at 15 he was an average 5ft 3in tall, before a three year growth spurt took him to 6ft 11in.

Gary trained as a chef and once cooked for the Queen, just after she had launched the Royal Research Ship, James Clark Ross in the River Tyne and said she had a chicken breast cooked in lime sauce.

He also worked at luxury hotels including Gleneagles, but his career in cooking was short-lived as, given his size, working long hours in hot and cramped kitchens became too much for him.

It was around this time people began to point the similarities between him and the Bond baddie.

“I hated it at first,” he says, but quickly decided to turn it to his advantage.

Working as a lookalike is a job that has let him travel the world and he estimates he’s been flown to Monaco around 40 times, travelling in First Class because of his size.

He has entertained the Russian mafia in Moscow, driven vintage Aston Martins, sailed on yachts, been hired by Roman Abramovich and Lord Sugar, visited the houses of Mel Gibson, Sting and Madonna.

But Gary is also a celebrity in his own right in France after he appeared in Le Boulet, from 2002, which still holds the record for the country’s most expensive movie at £15 million.

He played Requin The Giant in the movie, which was shot in North Africa and Paris.

Away from the glamour, Gary has also developed a niche skill in wire animal model making and sells his work all over the world.

He currently has pieces on display at Jesmond Dene House, Doxford Hall Hotel, The Freeman Hospital and Alnwick Gardens.

With such a colourful life it comes as little surprise he is working on a book of his life and is currently looking for a publisher.

Gary tells one anecdote when he appeared as Jaws at Hamley’s Toy Shop on Regent Street in London for a Corgi Toys promotion.

He says: “The store was closed to the public for this event. There were other lookalikes there such as Barbie, Action Man and a guy walking around who looked like Michael Jackson.

“Michael Jackson was ignoring us, so in the end I went up to him, lifted him up and said, “Are you not speaking?” He just squirmed. He was acting really strange. Some lookalikes begin to think they’re the real people and can be a bit snobby.

Half an hour later I was talking to the manager and he said, “Did you see Michael Jackson?” and I said “That lookalike?” and he said, “No, that was the real Michael Jackson.”