Roy Scheider
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Roy Scheider | |
|---|---|
| File:Roy Scheider.jpg Circa 1984 by Bob Riha Jr | |
| Born | Roy Richard Scheider |
| Years active | 1968-2008 |
| Spouse(s) | second wife, Cynthia Bebout Scheider (1962-1989) Brenda Siemer Scheider (1989-2008) |
| Website | royscheider.net |
Roy Richard Scheider (November 10, 1932 - February 10, 2008) was an Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe-nominated American actor. He has a long and outstanding resume of films, and he is possibly best known for his role as police chief Martin Brody in the 1975 blockbuster Jaws.
Biography
Scheider was born in Orange, New Jersey. As a child Scheider was an athlete, participating in organized baseball and boxing competitions. He attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, and was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 1985. He traded his boxing gloves for the stage, studying drama at both Rutgers University and Franklin and Marshall College, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. After three years in the United States Air Force, he appeared with the New York Shakespeare Festival, and won an Obie Award in 1968.
Roy Scheider's first marriage was to Cynthia Bebout on November 8, 1962. The couple had one daughter, Maximillia, before divorcing in 1989. On February 11, 1989, he married his current wife, actress Brenda Siemer Scheider, with whom he has a son, Christian, and a daughter, Molly.
Film roles
Scheider's first film role was in the 1963 horror film Curse of the Living Corpse. (He was billed as "Roy R. Sheider"). In 1971, he appeared in two highly popular movies, Klute and The French Connection, the latter garnering him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Four years later he portrayed Chief Martin Brody in the Hollywood blockbuster Jaws which also starred Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfus. Scheider's famous movie line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat", was voted 35th on American Film Institute's list of best quotes for movies. In 1976, he starred as Doc, a secret agent in Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier.
He was originally cast as Michael in The Deer Hunter, as the second movie of a three movie deal with Universal Studios. However, bound by a Universal contract to make a Jaws sequel, he was deprived of the role. In 1979, four years after he appeared in Jaws, he was nominated for his second Academy Award, this time as Best Actor in All That Jazz.
He was the original choice to play John Rambo in the 1982 film, First Blood, but the part eventually went to Sylvester Stallone.[citation needed] In 1983 he starred in Blue Thunder, a John Badham film about a fictitious technologically advanced prototype attack helicopter which was to be used as security over the city of Los Angeles during the 1984 Summer Olympics Games. This was followed by appearing in Peter Hyams' 2010: The Year We Make Contact, a 1984 sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science fiction classic 2001: A Space Odyssey
Scheider went on to star in films such as The Myth of Fingerprints (1997) and Silver Wolf (1998). In 2007, he starred in The Poet and If I Didn't Care.
Other appearances
In 1993, Scheider signed on to be the lead star in the Steven Spielberg-produced television series SeaQuest DSV. During the second season, Scheider voiced disdain for the direction in which the series was heading. His comments were highly publicized and the media criticized him for panning his own show. NBC made additional casting and writing changes in the third season, and Scheider decided to exit the show. His contract however, required that he make several guest appearances in season three.
He has also repeatedly guest starred on the NBC television series Third Watch. Among his most recent films is the crusty father of hero Frank Castle in The Punisher (2004).
Scheider also hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in the tenth (1984-1985) season (musical guest: Billy Ocean) and appeared on the Family Guy episode Bill and Peter's Bogus Journey voicing himself as the host of a toilet-training video.
In 2007, Scheider received one of two annually-presented Lifetime Achievement Awards at the SunDeis Film Festival in Waltham, Massachusetts. (Academy Award winner Patricia Neal was the recipient of the other.)
Scheider guest-starred in an episode Law & Order: Criminal Intent as a death row inmate on May 14, 2007.
Illness and Death
In 2004, 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 passed away on February 10, 2008, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Though a cause of death was not immediately released[1], Scheider's wife attributed her husband's death to complications from a staph infection.[2]
On February 10, 2008, The New York Times reported that Scheider died in Little Rock, Arkansas at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Hospital on Sunday afternoon. The newspaper confirmed that his death was the result of a staph infection after talking with Scheider's wife. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/11/movies/11scheider.html?ex=1203310800&en=0f847ba58b86fa65&ei=5070
Filmography
- The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964)
- Paper Lion (1968)
- Stiletto (1969)
- Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1969)
- Loving (1970)
- Klute (1971)
- The French Connection (1971)
- The Seven-Ups (1973)
- Jaws (1975)
- Marathon Man (1976)
- Sorcerer (1977)
- Jaws 2 (1978)
- Last Embrace (1979)
- All That Jazz (1979)
- Still of the Night (1982)
- Blue Thunder (1983)
- Tiger Town (1983)
- 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)
- The Men's Club (1986)
- 52 Pick-Up (1986)
- Cohen and Tate (1988)
- Listen to Me (1989)
- Night Game (movie) (1989)
- The Fourth War (1989)
- The Russia House (1990)
- Somebody has to Shoot the Picture (1990)
- Naked Lunch (1991)
- Wild Justice (1993)
- seaQuest DSV (1993) (television series)
- Romeo is Bleeding (1994)
- The Peacekeeper (1996)
- Executive Target (1997)
- The Myth of Fingerprints (1997)
- The Rainmaker (1997)
- The Rage (1997)
- Plato's Run (1997)
- Evasive Action (1998)
- RKO 281 (1999)
- Falling Through (2000)
- Daybreak (2000)
- The Doorway (2000)
- Texas 46 (2002) aka The Good War (USA)
- Dracula II: Ascension (2003)
- The Punisher (2004)
- The Poet (2007)
- If I Didn't Care (2007)
- Dark Honeymoon (2008) (completed)
- Iron Cross (2008) (in post-production)
References
- ^ "'Jaws' actor Roy Scheider dies". CNN. 2008-02-10. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
- ^ Kehr, David (2008-02-10). "Roy Scheider, Actor in "Jaws", Dies at 75". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
External links
- Roy Scheider at IMDb
- Roy Scheider at the Starpulse Biography site
- Roy Scheider at The New York Times
- RoyScheider.com - not directly affiliated with Mr. Scheider