1932-2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
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- Lost - S4, E3: "The Economist"
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- RIP Roy Scheider
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4 comments:
No disrespect to Heath Ledger, but hearing about Scheider's death hit me harder.
Heath was coming into his own finally and it is absolutely tragic that he died so unexpectedly. But I grew up with Chief Brody being among my heroes. Robert Shaw certainly had the flashier role as Quint, but Roy Scheider is the one who grounds JAWS in reality. When Brody's kid is out in the water, we see the greatest of fears in the man's eyes. JAWS is a great film not simply because of direction or scares, but because we cared about Brody's plight and we cared whether he lived to tell his tale ala Quint's story.
Roy had many other outstanding roles,...French Connection, All That Jazz, Naked Lunch, Rainmaker, but his legacy came with Bruce the shark, and cinema was changed forever because of it.
The first thing I ever saw Roy in was "Sea Quest DSV"....I loved that show (and Roy...and Jonathan Brandis who you may recall died tragically when he hung himself a few years ago). Then when I started watching more movies and seeing Roy in them, I realized what a great actor he was. I haven't seen Jaws yet in its entirety but from the classic shots you see in every AFI 100 Greatest ______ countdown, it looks to be a great performance. RIP Captain Nathan Bridger!!
Yeah, I love Scheider as well. I have to echo Tyler's sentiments about Chief Brody, he really is the make-or-break character in Jaws and Scheider was perfect in the role. Very memorable, very commanding in his scenes.
And of the other roles I've seen him in (All That Jazz, Marathon Man and The French Connection) he was always fantastic. The only thing that's different about this and Ledger's passing is that with Ledger I felt like the world was deprived of its next generation star. He was peaking. Turning in some terrific performances left and right and really blazing a path.
Scheider did that decades ago and had a ten year period or so where he could do no wrong and then receeded to the background. His passing has not really even hit me yet (I don't want this to come out wrong, but it's true that after watching All That Jazz for the first time earlier this year, I checked his IMDB page just to make sure he was still alive).
I don't want to make this a comparison between Scheider and Ledger though. One was young, the other older. One's death was shockingly abrupt, the other was battling cancer.
The only thing they have in common really is that the world has lost another great, they will be missed and that it's a damn shame.
It's unfortunate how when 2 celebrities die around the same time, it does kind of become a contest to see whose demise was more tragic. I felt bad for Brad Renfro when Ledger died, because I knew nobody would care about his passing. It's a shame, but I guess that's just how it works. Like at any awards ceremony with a In Memory segment, were you can tell who the really popular, important dead people are based on applause.
Anyway, this was hard to wake up to today. Jaws has long been one of my favorites. I loved sharks as a kid, and much of that love came from the film. As Chachi pointed out, Scheider's Brody is the heart of the film, and really grounds what could have been a cheesy B-grade creature feature and makes it a classic.
Reading his bio on IMDB, I learned that he passed on the starring role in The Deer Hunter, in order to make Jaws 2 (just so he could get out of his contract with Universal). Unfortunate, because I think he would have been great in Deer Hunter.
He was a 2-time Oscar nominee, for French Connection and All That Jazz. While he will forever be remembered for saying "You're gonna need a bigger boat," his passing wouldn't be quite as rough had he not been so good in so many other films. He was truly a talented man, and will be greatly missed.
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