Roy Scheider Bio - Roy Scheider Biography

Roy Scheider: Biography

With a weather-beaten face and acerbic wit, Roy Scheider made a name for himself as a character actor and has turned in award-nominated performances on film and TV.

His breakout role was in 1971's The French Connection, where he played Gene Hackman's partner and got an Oscar nomination. The 1970s also saw Scheider's biggest hit and perhaps the film he is most recognized for - Jaws. The 1975 Steven Spielberg blockbuster made Scheider a star. He would return for one sequel (itself a result of a contract dispute with Universal Studios). Scheider got a second Oscar nod for his performance as a drug-addicted dance choreographer in Bob Fosse's All That Jazz.

Scheider came to television in 1993 as Captain Nathan Bridger on seaQuest DSV. Produced by Spielberg, the series saw Scheider at the helm of a submarine navigating an undersea future. However, as script quality declined, Scheider became increasingly critical of the show and was released from his contract after two seasons before a brief third season resulted in the show's cancellation.

Since seaQuest went off the air, Scheider mostly stuck to supporting roles, occasionally in major movies like The Punisher and The Myth of Fingerprints, but mostly in direct-to-video action thrillers.

Sadly, Scheider passed away February 10, 2008 after battling multiple myloma. At 75, he left behind a long legacy of film and TV work that will continue to be enjoyed, and hopefully discovered, by fans for years to come.

Roy Scheider: I've been fortunate to do what I consider three landmark films. The French Connection spawned a whole era of the relationship between two policemen, based on an enormous amount of truth about working on the job. Jaws was the first big, blockbuster outdoor-adventure film. And certainly All That Jazz is not like any old MGM musical. Each one of these films is unique, and I consider myself fortunate to be associated with them.(edit)
Roy Scheider: (describing his "Jaws" character, Martin Brody) If you go back and look at the way it's developed and built, that is really a funny character. He's a fumbler with all kinds of inhibitions and fears _ that's the way we built that character.(edit)
Roy Scheider: You read a lot about movies with budgets of $25 to 30 million. Hell, if a studio can piss away that kind of money, why not let 'em piss on me?(edit)
Roy Scheider: The important thing is to do good work, no matter what medium you do it in.(edit)

Remembering Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss said "He was a wonderful guy," recalling his Jaws co-star as an actor who "does his job and does it as well as he can."(edit)
Roy Scheider wrote an article for the April 1984 issue of Playboy.(edit)
Roy Scheider's real-life wife, Brenda King, played the wife of his character on seaQuest DSV.(edit)
Roy Scheider graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA.(edit)
Roy Scheider has been nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for The French Connection (1971) and Best Actor for (1979).(edit)
In a scene in Jaws where Brody, Hooper and Quint compare battle scars, Brody lifts his shirt to reveal a scar from an appendectomy. This is actually Roy Scheider's scar, not a make-up job.(edit)
During rehearsals for the scene in Jaws in which Chief Brody is slapped by Mrs. Kintner, Roy Scheider was actually being hit in the face. Actress Lee Fierro was apparently unable to fake the slap, and Scheider has said the takes of that scene were the "most painful" of his career.(edit)
Roy Scheider has played two characters with pet dolphins: Heywood Floyd in 2010 and Captain Nathan Bridger on seaQuest DSV.(edit)
Roy Scheider was cast in The Punisher because he lived next door to the film's director, Jonathan Hensleigh.(edit)
Finally fed up with seaQuest DSV, Roy Scheider wanted to leave the series after its second season. However, he was still under contract; producers resolved this by having Scheider's character of Captain Bridger make only occasional appearances in the third season.(edit)
Roy Scheider was offered (and was very interested in taking) the part of Robert Thorn in The Omen, but could not accept because of a scheduling conflict.(edit)
In preparing for their roles in The French Connection, Roy Scheider and Gene Hackman patrolled with real-life NYPD cops Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso for a month to research their characters.(edit)
Roy Scheider has played the President of the United States in three films: Chain of Command (2000); The Peacekeeper (1997); and Executive Target (1997).(edit)
The famous "You're gonna need a bigger boat" line from Jaws was improvised by Roy Scheider.(edit)
During the filming of Jaws, when Chief Brody is trapped on the sinking boat, Roy Scheider did not trust the crew to rescue him in case of an emergency, so he hid axes and hatchets around the cabin just in case something happened.(edit)
Roy Scheider is a brother in the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.(edit)
Roy Scheider was originally cast as Michael in The Deer Hunter, which would have been the second movie of a three picture deal with Universal. Because he did not believe that the character would travel around the world to find his friend, he quit the movie. Universal executives were furious, but they let him out of his contract when he agreed to do Jaws 2. The character of Michael was played instead by Robert DeNiro.(edit)
On March 4, 2007, Roy Scheider was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the SunDeis Film Festival at Brandeis University, after a screening of his Bob Fosse film All That Jazz.(edit)
Unhappy with the direction seaQuest DSV went in its second season, Roy Scheider became increasingly critical of the series in the press, referring to it at one point as "childish trash."(edit)
In June 2005, Roy Scheider had a bone marrow transplant to treat multiple myeloma.(edit)