Rip Roy Scheider 1932-2008

[JTrotter]

Just heard this from my brother--lead actor and 2-time Oscar Nominee Roy Scheider has passed away at 75. The hospital did not release the cause of death but did say it had to do with past treatments for Multiple Myeloma. Scheider is best remembered for his work as Police Chief Brody in the 1st $100 million-dollar "summer blockbuster" JAWS directed by a little known TV-director named Spielberg. Before that he had worked in Jane Fonda's Oscar winning KLUTE, Gene Hackman's THE FRENCH CONNECTION and then as the lead cop in the AWESOME movie THE SEVEN-UPS which my Dad made me buy last year lauding that the car chase in it was better than the one in FRENCH CONNECTION. Watch both back-to-back, I gotta go w/ THE SEVEN-UPS Scheider went on to do a JAWS sequel after co-starring as Dustin Hoffman's shady CIA brother in the brilliant MARATHON MAN (which still gets under my skin to this day....) In 1979, Scheider went on to play Joe Gideon, a womanizing, pill-popping, choreographer in ALL THAT JAZZ based on the life of famed choreographer BOB FOSSE. Scheider is brilliant in this movie; seriously. I remember seeing this on VHS and have been meaning to pick it up on DVD as it is literally a movie that is the benchmark on which movies like ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, MOULIN ROUGE & CHICAGO were made. The 80's brought Scheider the action-classic (at least in my eyes) BLUE THUNDER. (I even had a 1:18 model replica of the helicopter!) Then he moved onto 2010 (sequel to 2001) and followed it w/ the kick-ass kidnapper thriller 52-PICK UP based on Elmore Leonard's novel. The 90's rejoined him w/ Spielberg on the cult-hit SEAQUEST DSV and then small roles in movies like THE RAINMAKER & THE PUNISHER. Scheider is survived by a wife and three children. My thoughts & prayers go out to his friends & family....

--JTrotter

"You're gonna need a bigger boat" from JAWS-- was voted No. 35 on the American Film Institute's list of best quotes from U.S. movies.

[Taxi]

Please keep obit posts in Test and Off-Topic.

And, as somebody has already posted this there, I'm going to close this one.