“The important thing is to do good work, no matter what medium you do it in.”– Roy Scheider
Roy Scheider in Jaws (Photo credit: Michael Heilemann)
Roy Richard Scheider was born on this day in Orange, New Jersey, USA in 1932. Today is the 81st anniversary of his birth.
He is the older of two boys born to Anna and Roy Bernhard Scheider.
Roy was very athletic growing up. He loved basketball, and especially boxing. At 140 pounds he was a welter weight. He boxed between 1947 and 1953 and even participated in the Golden Gloves.
He put down the gloves in college and began to act. After studying acting at both Rutgers and Franklin and Marshall he spent 3 years in the Air Force. Once out the military he landed the yin yang of acting roles (he worked with the New York Shakespeare Festival and on two soap operas — Love of Life and The Secret Storm.)
After a few low-budget films he scored in Klute with Jane Fonda in 1971. Then came his break out role (and first Oscar nom.) in The French Connection.
In 1975 Scheider took the role of everyman police chief Brody in the film adaptation of Peter Benchley’s Jaws.
Scheider … shared lead billing with Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss in the tale of a New England seaside community terrorized by a hungry Great White shark. “Jaws” was a blockbuster, and for many years held the record as the highest-grossing film of all time. Scheider then turned up as the shady CIA agent brother of Dustin Hoffman in the unnerving Marathon Man (1976). [IMBD]
After a few years of so-so movies he hit gold again with his mesmerizing portrayal of Bob Fosse in All That Jazz. Scheider earned another Oscar nomination for the film.
Mr. Joe Gideon (Photo credit: geminicollisionworks)
Other work includes: Blue Thunder, 2010, 52 Pick-Up Cohen and Tate The Russia House and the TV series SeaQuest 2032, but for Scheider his trifecta would always be The French Connection, Jaws and All That Jazz.
He died in Febrary 2008 in Little Rock, Arkansas after a long battle with multiple myeloma.
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