Roy Scheider RIP

Updated on February 11, 2008 By Ken Begg 12 Comments

Another of the good ones passed away yesterday at the age of 75.  Mr. Scheider is surely best known to move fans for playing Sheriff Martin Brody in Jaws and Jaws II.  However, he also passed up an easy paycheck when the producers of Jaws: The Revenge wanted him to make an appearance in the beginning of the film just long enough to get himself eaten.  Scheider refused, for which I remain eternally grateful.

Sadly, although a talented ‘everyman’ actor of the sort that florished in the ’70s, Mr. Schieder never really starred in that many memorable films.  Certainly his support of Gene Hackman in The French Connection rates a strong recommendation, and you could do worse (although also better) than his starring turn in the semi-sequel The Seven-Ups. 

Mr. Scheider began his film work by appearing in the period horror flick The Curse of the Living Corpse, made by the director and writer of Horror of Party Beach.  Those two films are available on a very nifty double bill DVD.

Mr. Scheider continued getting small acting gigs until his time came in 1971, when he co-starred in two Oscar winning films, The French Connection and Klute.  After that, he reached his career pinnacle by starring in Jaws (1975).  Other movies worth noting include Marathon Man, Sorcerer, All That Jazz and the super-helicopter flick Blue Thunder.  After that he never really got many good parts, and sadly in the latter part of his career his most prominent role may have been as on the captain on the tedious sci-fi series SeaQuest DSV.  In the end, he ended up, like so many of his peers, in generic crap movies and TV appearances.  At least he was able to make a living at his craft, which so few people do.

I’ve always said I’d like to buy Mr. Scheider a drink for turning down Jaws: The Revenge.  Now it’s too late.  I’ll lift a glass in his honor later today, and you may wish to do the same. 

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  • David Fullam

    All That Jazz is one of my all time favorites, as is Mishima-A Life in Four Chapters, which he narrated.

  • Fox Cutter

    My first exposure to him wasn’t in Jaws, but 2010. I was really impressed by his acting (as much as a 12 year old can be) and was disappointed to find he wasn’t in 2001.

    I never went out of my way to find him in a movie, but I was always pleased to see him and he made any role he took on feel real, even if it wasn’t written all that well.

    He was a great actor, even if he didn’t get top billing often enough he played each character as different character. When you saw him in a movie you weren’t just getting Roy playing Roy (like say Tom plays Tom, or Ford plays Ford), you got something different and unique.

  • You and I must have different definitions of “memorable,” as I can think of at least ten memorable films off the top of my head that Scheider appeared in. I’ll miss the guy a lot, and I’m glad he continued to work right to the end. To get an idea of his stature and weight as a performer, I believe he may be the only actor ever to portray on film three different fictional Presidents of the United States.

  • Roger Hylton

    All I could think this morning was when he goes to cross over the river Styx, he says “you’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

    (^_^)

    I do not think I would have like “All That Jazz” if anyone else had played Joe Gideon.

  • Zandor Vorkov

    I watched a lot of crappy movies just because Roy was in them, and I was never sorry for it.

    I’ll lift one to you, Roy. RIP.

  • I went back and read Ken’s Jaws review after I heard of Roy Scheider’s passing. Ken did a great job pin-pointing how Scheider humanzied Brody, and how he was a much better actor than the leads in the Jaws knock-offs. RIP

  • He was a good actor and always seemed like a genuinely nice guy too. I’m sorry I never got a chance to meet him as I too would’ve definitely bought the guy a drink for turning down JAWS: The Revenge. I can’t imagine what they offered him for what would’ve been a brief cameo death scene but I’m glad he clearly set a higher price on the integrity of the character he so memorably portrayed. R.I.P. Roy – you’re missed and warmly remembered.

  • BeckoningChasm

    He’ll be missed.

    I’d always heard that the best-known line in Jaws was an ad-lib by him. I’d like to think that’s true.

  • wjl2

    When I heard of Roy’s death, I went and got my copy of “Jaws” and sat down with a soda and some chips to watch him make that movie, and utter THAT famous line. It just seemed like the right thing to do.

    I also remember him fondly in “ALl That Jazz,” which on a recent re-watch I realized was a better movie, and he a better actor, that I’d originally recalled.

    – Bill

  • The Rev. D.D.

    My first exposure to him was in _Jaws 2_. I liked him in that pretty well.
    Seeing him in the first, though, made me a fan for life. I know there are still works of his out there I’ve not seen, and I need to get to those. But those I’ve seen I enjoyed, and I can’t imagine that changing. Heck, I watched Seaquest just ’cause he was in it. Very few actors have that kind of pull on me, and Mr. Schneider was one of them.
    Rest well, sir.
    And thanks again for not appearing in _J:tR_.

  • John Nowak

    Curse of the Living Corpse is a neat little film, firmly in the “delightfully macabre ironic justice” genre of good Roald Dahl and EC Horror comics (I say “good” to distinguish it from bad examples of the same genre, like Hitchhiker. It’s almost impossible to believe that it was made by the same guy who made the awful Horror of Party Beach. Scheider has a pivotal part.

    And in a way, I think Scheider’s first role echoed his career: underappreciated, but never disappointing. He will be missed.

  • naclee

    A Scheider film no one has mentioned is “52 pickup”. I haven’t seen the film recently and don’t remember if it is an esspecially great film, but I do remember liking it because of Roy Scheider.