LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Roy Scheider, a two-time Oscar nominee best known for his roles as a small-town police chief in "Jaws" and his portrait of famed choreographer Bob Fosse in "All That Jazz," died on Sunday at age 75.When I read of Scheider’s death, I actually yelled something like, “God-damn it!” at my computer. I was angry. I still might punch a wall at some point tonight.
Scheider died of complications from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood cells, at the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, hospital spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said.
Heath Ledger died a couple of weeks ago. He was my age, as opposed to 75, and it was very, very sad, yet somehow it still didn’t affect me as much as this. I know that, news-wise, Ledger’s death is more earth-shattering, but Scheider’s death is more me-shattering. Roy Scheider should always be with us, drinking beer and reluctantly hunting down marauding sharks.
When I was younger I had a dream about Jaws
. I don’t remember much about it, except that most of it took place underwater and it involved Quint in some capacity. To this day, it’s one of the most pleasant dreams I’ve ever had, and Jaws is a movie I can watch over and over without ever becoming bored. Chief Brody has been a reassuring presence in my life since I was ten.
I think I’ve figured out why I’m so afraid of death: Being dead would mean never seeing Jaws again. That’s just too horrible to contemplate.So I beseech you to watch Jaws, Jaws 2, The French Connection, Klute, Marathon Man, Naked Lunch, and any other Roy Scheider movie you can get your hands on in commemoration. You might also consider sending flowers to Lorraine Gary (and possibly to Richard Dreyfuss).
And if Peter Weller dies this month, I’m just going to kill myself.
3 comments:
"...The Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock."
It's no wonder he's dead. It's Tikki Tikki Tembo all over again.
I have a very important question for you.....what did you think of Ghost and the Darkness? I have been thinking a lot about the plot and characters of Jaws and the ways in which Ghost and the Darkness both utilized them and added a new layer of greatness. Of course Jaws is the better film in terms of craftsmanship, that Spielberg is just too damn good.
(Jesse looks down and then proceeds to smash the small cup in his hand)
Ha! Would that be the beer can crushed buy Quint, or the paper cup Hooper bad-assedly crushes?
I liked The Ghost and The Darkness quite a bit, although it's been a while since I've seen it. Val Kilmer didn't particularly add to nor detract from the movie, but I liked Michael Douglas's grizzled, quasi-spiritual hunter (and I also liked that he got good and killed, a la Steven Segal in Executive Decision). It's a reasonably atmospheric and engaging film, although I suspect that if I watched it now, I might pick it apart a bit more.
Jaws, on the other hand, is perfect entertainment. Late in the movie, it isolates its characters on a small boat on the ocean (justifying some film scholars' contentions that it echoes a "haunted-house" story) but at no point would I consider it "claustrophobic", since it spends its first half or so creating a plausible community. There are scares in the movie (especially, I suspect, if you'd seen it in 1975) but it plays best as a tense, cracklin'-good adventure. The acting is great--although mostly unobtrusive--the direction is dynamic and creative, the special effects are crushingly good... but pay special attention to Verna Fields' editing. Note how poorly the movie could have worked were it not for the cadence and shot-selection going on here. The movie is a perfect storm of wonderful talent coming together with the right material.
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