Two-time Academy Award nominee, Roy Scheider is definitely best remembered as the reluctant, shark-hunting police chief in “Jaws”. This great actor died yesterday at the age of 75 years in Little Rock, Ark. His wife, Brenda Seimer reported that Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma for many years and died from a staph infection.
Scheider was active in East End causes in his real life. He helped to co-found the Hayground School in Bridgehampton, an institution dedicated to the creation of a progressive and culturally diverse educational environment for local children. Scheider was known to be deeply committed to the school he co-founded in every way, attested Jonathan Snow, another of the school’s founders. Apart from involving himself in the school, he was also a regular participant in the annual Artists and Writers Softball Game. This was a star-studded event peopled by summering celebrities in East Hampton that helped to raise money for a variety of local charities.
Scheider’s presence on screen always made an impression. His persona and pleasant demeanour made him a loveable person. He was more often than not known for playing tough, honorable cops, such as the beleaguered Martin Brody, chief of police for a Massachusetts island community terrorized by a great white shark in the 1975 blockbuster “Jaws.” He also continued in the role in the 1978 sequel, “Jaws 2.”
Scheider was nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar in 1971 for “The French Connection” where he played New York police detective Buddy Russo, cocky partner to Gene Hackman’s high-strung Popeye Doyle. He was also nominated for best actor in the offbeat role as a dying, dream-haunted choreographer Joe Gideon in Bob Fosse’s 1979 autobiographical musical, “All That Jazz.” Scheider always carried with him grace and a modicum of hard-won worldliness to his heroic roles, which will always be remembered by his fans.
Via Nytimes
