Roy Scheider

[Techguy]

From MSNBC -- it's possible, and highly likely, Mr. Scheider was ailing at the time "Endgame" was shooting:

‘Jaws’ star Roy Scheider dies at 75
Actor was being treated for multiple myeloma the last two years[/b]

updated 47 minutes ago

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Roy Scheider, a two-time Oscar nominee best known for his role as a police chief in the blockbuster movie “Jaws,” has died. He was 75.

Scheider died Sunday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital in Little Rock, hospital spokesman David Robinson said. The hospital did not release a cause of death.

However, hospital spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said Scheider had been treated for multiple myeloma at the hospital’s Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy for the past two years.

He was nominated for an Oscar for best-supporting actor in 1971’s “The French Connection” in which he played the police partner of Oscar winner Gene Hackman and for best-actor for 1979’s “All That Jazz,” the autobiographical Bob Fosse film.

However, he was best known for his role in Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film, “Jaws,” the enduring classic about a killer shark terrorizing beachgoers and well as millions of moviegoers.
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Scheider was also politically active. He participated in rallies protesting U.S. military action in Iraq, including a massive New York demonstration in March 2003 that police said drew 125,000 chanting activists.[/color]

[diablodeblanco]

I just read this at the MSN site. I was saddened to see this. I enjoyed him on the big screen and tv. I will forever remember his "bigger boat" line from Jaws.

Goodbye Mr. Scheider.

[DonnaJo]

Thanks for the link, Techguy.

In my local paper, it states that Scheider died from a staph infection in Little Rock. I suppose it was a result from the myeloma he suffered from.

[Patcat]

A splendid actor, and by all accounts a fine man. His performance in ENDGAME was magnificent.

Patcat

[Patcat]

From the NEW YORK TIMES:



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February 11, 2008
Roy Scheider, Actor in ‘Jaws,’ Dies at 75
By DAVE KEHR
Roy Scheider, a stage actor with a background in the classics who became one of the leading figures in the American film renaissance of the 1970s, died on Sunday afternoon in Little Rock, Ark. He was 75 and lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y.

Mr. Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma for several years, and died of complications from a staph infection, his wife, Brenda Seimer, said.

Mr. Scheider’s rangy figure, gaunt face and emotional openness made him particularly appealing in everyman roles, most famously as the agonized police chief of “Jaws,” Steven Spielberg’s 1975 breakthrough hit, about a New England resort town haunted by the knowledge that a killer shark is preying on the local beaches.

Mr. Scheider conveyed an accelerated metabolism in movies like “Klute” (1971), his first major film role, in which he played a threatening pimp to Jane Fonda’s New York call girl; and in William Friedkin’s “French Connection” (also 1971), as Buddy Russo, the slightly more restrained partner to Gene Hackman’s marauding police detective, Popeye Doyle. That role earned Mr. Scheider the first of two Oscar nominations.

Born in 1932 in Orange, N.J., Mr. Scheider earned his distinctive broken nose in the New Jersey Diamond Gloves Competition. He studied at Rutgers and at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., where he graduated as a history major with the intention of going to law school. He served three years in the United States Air Force, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. When he was discharged, he returned to Franklin and Marshall to star in a production of “Richard III.”

His professional debut was as Mercutio in a 1961 New York Shakespeare Festival production of “Romeo and Juliet.” While continuing to work onstage, he made his movie debut in “The Curse of the Living Corpse” (1964), a low-budget horror film by the prolific schlockmeister Del Tenney. “He had to bend his knees to die into a moat full of quicksand up in Connecticut,” recalled Ms. Seimer, a documentary filmmaker. “He loved to demonstrate that.”

In 1977 Mr. Scheider worked with Mr. Friedkin again in “Sorcerer,” a big-budget remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1953 French thriller, “The Wages of Fear,” about transporting a dangerous load of nitroglycerine in South America.

Offered a leading role in “The Deer Hunter” (1979), Mr. Scheider had to turn it down in order to fulfill his contract with Universal for a sequel to “Jaws.” (The part went to Robert De Niro.)

“Jaws 2” failed to recapture the appeal of the first film, but Mr. Scheider bounced back, accepting the principal role in Bob Fosse’s autobiographical phantasmagoria of 1979, “All That Jazz.” Equipped with Mr. Fosse’s Mephistophelean beard and manic drive, Mr. Scheider’s character, Joe Gideon, gobbled amphetamines in an attempt to stage a new Broadway show while completing the editing of a film (and pursuing a parade of alluring young women) — a monumental act of self-abuse that leads to open-heart surgery. This won Mr. Scheider an Academy Award nomination in the best actor category. (Dustin Hoffman won that year, for “Kramer vs. Kramer.”)

In 1980, Mr. Scheider returned to his first love, the stage, where his performance in a production of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” opposite Blythe Danner and Raul Julia earned him the Drama League of New York award for distinguished performance. Although he continued to be active in films, notably in Robert Benton’s “Still of the Night” (1982) and John Badham’s action spectacular “Blue Thunder” (1983), he moved from leading men to character roles, including an American spy in Fred Schepisi’s “Russia House” (1990) and a calculating Mafia don in “Romeo Is Bleeding” (1993).

One of the most memorable performances of his late career was as the sinister, wisecracking Dr. Benway in David Cronenberg’s adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s “Naked Lunch” (1991).

Living in Sag Harbor, Mr. Scheider continued to appear in films and lend his voice to documentaries, becoming, Ms. Seimer said, increasingly politically active. With the poet Kathy Engle, he helped to found the Hayground School in Bridgehampton, dedicated to creating an innovative, culturally diverse learning environment for local children. At the time of his death, Mr. Scheider was involved in a project to build a film studio in Florence, Italy, for a series about the history of the Renaissance.

Besides his wife, his survivors include three children, Christian Verrier Scheider and Molly Mae Scheider, with Ms. Seimer, and Maximillia Connelly Lord, from an earlier marriage, to Cynthia Bebout; a brother, Glenn Scheider of Summit, N.J.; and two grandchildren.



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Patcat

[diablodeblanco]

patcat said:

A splendid actor, and by all accounts a fine man. His performance in ENDGAME was magnificent.

Patcat

I think it is a bit ironic that the character he played in Jaws (arguably his most famous role) was a small town chief of police living along the Atlantic seaboard. I think a lot of successful actors tend to go to LA or New York or perhaps Europe. Roy Scheider chose Sag Harbor. Somehow that seems fitting.

[ragincajun]

So sad, when opened Yahoo, and saw the announcement, my heart sunk.

[Patcat]

It's unfortunate that it's only in reading an obituary that you become aware of how remarkable a person is. Mr. Scheider's work as an actor is impressive enough, but what he did outside of and beyond that is very impressive. I can't believe I failed to mention ALL THAT JAZZ. An extraordinary performance.

Patcat

[diablodeblanco]

patcat said:

A splendid actor, and by all accounts a fine man. His performance in ENDGAME was magnificent.

Patcat

When I read about his illness I kept thinking about his character in Endgame being slammed against the stone wall of the prison. That had to hurt more than we know.

[Techguy]

This article in Max Health mentions Mr. Scheider's guest starring role in CI and details the nature of his illness and possible treatment--more at the highlighted link:

Scheider guest-starred in an episode Law & Order: Criminal Intent as a death row inmate on May 14, 2007.

In 2004, Roy Scheider was diagnosed with myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells. In June 2005, he underwent a bone marrow transplant to successfully treat the cancer which was classified as being in partial remission. Scheider died on February 10, 2008, in Little Rock, Arkansas, at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Hospital. Though a cause of death was not immediately released, Scheider's wife attributed her husband's death to a staph infection.
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[sabry]

I read here now and I regret very much, a great actor

[Patcat]

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18886413

A nice tribute to Mr. Scheider on NPR.

Patcat

[Ladyheather]

I am so glad that we all enjoyed his performance in Endgame. He was a wonderful actor and it sounds like he had a very full life. Our prayers go out to his wife and family. He will surely be missed by them so very much.

[NikkiGreen]

Rest in Peace, Mr. Scheider.