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Roy Scheider, Actor in ‘Jaws,’ Dies at 75
nytimes.com ^ | February 11, 2008 | By DAVE KEHR

Posted on 02/10/2008 6:00:57 PM PST by lunarbicep

Roy Scheider, a stage actor with a background in the classics who became one of the leading figures in the American film renaissance of the 1970s, died on Sunday afternoon in Little Rock, Ark. He was 75 and lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y.

Mr. Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma for several years, and died of complications from a staph infection, his wife, Brenda Seimer, said.

Mr. Scheider’s rangy figure, gaunt face and emotional openness made him particularly appealing in everyman roles, most famously as the agonized police chief of “Jaws,” Steven Spielberg’s 1975 breakthrough hit, about a New England resort town haunted by the knowledge that a killer shark is preying on the local beaches.

Mr. Scheider conveyed an accelerated metabolism in movies like “Klute” (1971), his first major film role, in which he played a threatening pimp to Jane Fonda’s New York call girl; and in William Friedkin’s “French Connection” (also 1971), as Buddy Russo, the slightly more restrained partner to Gene Hackman’s marauding police detective, Popeye Doyle. That role earned Mr. Scheider the first of two Oscar nominations.

Born in 1932 in Orange, N.J., Mr. Scheider earned his distinctive broken nose in the New Jersey Diamond Gloves Competition. He studied at Rutgers and at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., where he graduated as a history major with the intention of going to law school. He served three years in the United States Air Force, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. When he was discharged, he returned to Franklin and Marshall to star in a production of “Richard III.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bluethunder; hollywood; jaws; obituary; royscheider; staph
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To: kinoxi
I love this exchange:

Martin: Doesn't make any sense? You mean they pay a guy like you to watch sharks?

Hooper: Well, uh, it doesn't make much sense for a guy who hates the water to live on an island either.

Martin: It's only an island if you look at it from the water.

81 posted on 02/10/2008 6:33:39 PM PST by MotleyGirl70
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To: lunarbicep

Always enjoyed his work. RIP, Roy.


82 posted on 02/10/2008 6:34:23 PM PST by rintense (You don't advance conservatism by becoming mMore styore liberal. Piss off McCain and Huck!)
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To: lunarbicep

83 posted on 02/10/2008 6:34:59 PM PST by bmwcyle (the Beltway crowd is like a bunch of women who have started menstruating together)
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To: NoGrayZone

Orca, what was that 75, 77, 78?

‘77

I grew up watching scary movies from the 50s and 60s, some real classics made back then.


84 posted on 02/10/2008 6:35:07 PM PST by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi ... Godspeed ... ICE’s toll-free tip hotline —1-866-DHS-2-ICE ... 9/11 .. Never FoRGeT)
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To: MotleyGirl70

:)


85 posted on 02/10/2008 6:35:48 PM PST by kinoxi
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To: NormsRevenge

You seen Air Jaws?


86 posted on 02/10/2008 6:38:17 PM PST by txhurl (Don't sausage me, bro!)
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To: lunarbicep

BAH!!!

Rest in Peace.

Always liked that guy.


87 posted on 02/10/2008 6:38:30 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: lunarbicep

Great movie, great actor! RIP!

88 posted on 02/10/2008 6:38:33 PM PST by meandog (Please pray for future President McCain--day minus 326 and counting! Stay home and get Hillary!)
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To: Larry Lucido

Thanks for posting that scene. : )


89 posted on 02/10/2008 6:39:07 PM PST by melt (Someday, they'll wish their Jihad... Jihadn't.)
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To: lunarbicep

I’d heard he died upon opening the door after hearing “Candygram”.


90 posted on 02/10/2008 6:41:36 PM PST by Tanniker Smith (Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of Dems . . .)
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To: mamelukesabre
Wow, time flies. Two more years and it’s 2010...the SEQUEL to 2001.

I finally got around to reading 3001.

91 posted on 02/10/2008 6:42:33 PM PST by Tanniker Smith (Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of Dems . . .)
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To: lunarbicep

I remember as a teen seeing him in "Marathon Man" and thinking, "Someday I'm gonna be that lean, that tan, that cool."

I never made it, but Roy made it look easy. He'll be missed.

92 posted on 02/10/2008 6:43:42 PM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: A_perfect_lady
Wow... was JAWS really 32 years ago??? I cannot believe it...

Me either! I was just a lad of 26 when it came out.

93 posted on 02/10/2008 6:44:00 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (If you don't want people to get your goat, don't tell them where it's tied.)
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To: MotleyGirl70

the book was a different ending.....Dreyfuss dies in the book and Brody’s only thought swimming home is his wife slept w/ Dreyfuss and he is gonna get in her face about it


94 posted on 02/10/2008 6:44:46 PM PST by advertising guy (if computer skills named us , I'd be backspace ,delete.)
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To: dr_who_2

Same age as me——we’re droppin’ like flies!


95 posted on 02/10/2008 6:45:11 PM PST by Mears
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To: Mears

Stay healthy. We need you.


96 posted on 02/10/2008 6:46:24 PM PST by dr_who_2
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To: lunarbicep
His best role in my opinion was as Sheriff Brody in Jaws. The movie had a bunch of high quality performances, but the reason it was a blockbuster and we still remember it today was because of Roy Scheider, not the shark. Quint, the fisherman, was a tough guy and arrogant. Hooper was a scientist who knew more than the audience and wasn't afraid. The actors gave fine performances, but they could not break the plane of the screen.

It was up to Brody, and Roy Scheider to get the audience on their side. Roy played the part perfectly to allow the audience to identify with him, and by the time the boat left the marina, we were fully on that boat with him. The audience in the theaters stood up and cheered when he finally shot the air tank, which is an amazing tribute to how much Roy broke the plane of the screen and made us care.

97 posted on 02/10/2008 6:48:15 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
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To: Cowboy Bob

Oh, snap!! Arkanacide!


98 posted on 02/10/2008 6:48:40 PM PST by jim35 ("...when the lion and the lamb lie down together, ...we'd better damn sure be the lion")
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To: martin_fierro

Yep, the yeoman actor.

Seaquest was silly, greenie, leftest claptrap.

But Blue Thunder was just plan silly..... Cool shades tho.

RIP Roy, hope you got to make it past the Final Audition


99 posted on 02/10/2008 6:54:43 PM PST by ASOC
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To: MotleyGirl70
Image hosted by Photobucket.com yer gonna need a bigger boat...
100 posted on 02/10/2008 6:56:30 PM PST by Chode (American Hedonist ©®)
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