Not the sort of news to start your week of with. Roy Scheider, the man who played Police Chief Brody in Jaws, died Sunday afternoon.

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.

I think Jaws is up there near the top of everyone’s favorite thrillers, or whatever genre you wish to call it, and it’s truly sad to see him go. At least we’ll always have his great performances to remember him by. Condolences to the family.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 11th, 2008 at 8:29 am and is filed under Death, Hollywood, Movies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.