Vintage PTO article- Obituary for Roy Scheider (Feb 2008)

I have been inspired from finding an old article I did for the PTO (Please Take One) magazine back in 2008, to do some drawings. But here is the article, in its entirity, that gave an unique inspiration point for today's drawings.

 

Obituary

Roy Scheider

1932-2008

“You're gonna need a bigger boat,” is the most memorable line from one of the most famous blockbusters of 1970s, which was Jaws, which brought Steven Spielberg into the public conscience as a director. Also, for the actor Roy Scheider, one of his most memorable roles as Police Chief Martin Brody, who is responsible for making sure his hometown of Amity is protected from the infamous white shark.

Roy Scheider was a memorable actor of his generation. With roles in such films like The French Connection, All That Jazz, and Marathon Man, he will be remembered for his roles in some of the most popular films of the 1970s.

Born as Roy Richard Scheider in the US state of New Jersey in 1932, he was more of a sportsman than an actor in his youth, competing in baseball and boxing (the latter gave him his distinguished broken nose during one of his competitions.) However, he eventually became interested in acting during his time at college, as he studied drama. After a military stint, he returned to acting with the New York Shakespeare Festival, and eventually won an “Obie Award” for his role for the play Stephen D.

His silver screen debut came in the form of the lead role in the 1964 horror movie, The Curse of the Living Corpse. This lead to unaccredited roles in two movies in 1968: The Julie Andrews musical “Star!” and the Emmy nominated sports comedy Paper Lion. However, his breakthrough role came in the form of Frank Ligourin in the 1971 thriller Klute, starring Jane Fonda, and Donald Sutherland. He became Oscar nominated for his supporting role in the Oscar-winning The French Connection, with starred Gene Hackman, and directed by William Friedkin, who would go on to do The Exorcist (Scheider would collaborate with Friedkin again as the lead of his 1977 film Sorcerer.) Throughout the 1970s, his became well known for his roles in Jaws (and its sequel, Jaws 2), Marathon Man, and received another Oscar nomination for his role in All That Jazz. During the 1980s, he was appearing in all sorts of films highlighting his versatility as an actor. These include being a pilot in Blue Thunder, a scientist in 2010, the sequel to “2001: A Space Odyssey”, and even a hit man in Cohen and Tate.

During the 1990s, he became known to a new generation of people with his role as Captain Nathan Bridger in the TV series SeaQuest DSV, which ran for three series. He even appeared in the 1991 David Cronenberg film, Naked Lunch. However, his career took a nosedive during the late 1990s and 2000s as he kept appearing in B-movies, from The Peacekeeper to Red Serpent. He also appeared in the 2004 Marvel movie of The Punisher as Frank Castle Senior, but he just was not in favour for mainstream films as he was in his heyday.

He passed away from multiple myeloma (cancer in the marrowbone) in early February 2008 in the US state of Arkansas, leaving moviegoers a legacy of films spanning less than five decades. Although, people say that actors should never work with children and animals, but Roy Scheider did work with one “animal” in particular, and that got him the lead role in one of the most successful films of the 1970s…. even thou the real star was the shark himself.

Roy Scheider, Actor,

Born 10 November 1932, New Jersey, USA

Died 10 February 2008, Arkansas, USA