The Chief is dead. Remembering Roy Scheider…

Roy Scheider has lost his battle with cancer. He died at the weekend, aged 75.

Sad to think that the youth of today and probably some folks my age might not know who Scheider was after at least a decade in the wilderness. He was of course one of the biggest actors of the 1970’s, starring in two of the very best films of that era in The French Connection and of course in Jaws, as the first everyman hero I ever believed in, Police Chief Brody.

Alongside the colourful characters that Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss created, Scheider’s Chief Brody was vulnerable but strong… a character that he defined on screen and would become a Spielberg protagonist for some years to come. It’s an amazing performance and the one role he will probably be remembered by. The great unlikely hero.

The French Connection, his work was as the long suffering partner to Gene Hackman was assured, humanising a movie that often went so very dark. A great example of a subtle performance. He was missed greatly in the film’s sequel.

He won one of the two Oscar nominations he received in his career for that movie, though it would be Hackman and Freidkin who would take home the statue.

He really was one of the most interesting leading actors of the 70’s. Klute, The Outside Man, the under-rated detective movie The Seven-Ups, Marathon Man, his second Oscar nominated performance for his brilliant turn in All That Jazz.

We too shouldn’t forget his second movie with William Freidkin, the Wages of Fear remake… Sorcerer.

So many great movies, so many great performances.

Sadly at the turn of the 80’s it all went a bit sour for Scheider. A contractual dispute forced him to star in the undercooked sequel to Jaws instead of the lead role in The Deer Hunter, a movie he was so desperate to star in. That role eventually went to Robert De Niro, whilst Scheider would have to fight off that damn shark again, and his career never really recovered.

Though his performances would stay strong. A psychiatrist who falls in love with Meryl Streep in The Still of Night, a cop in Blue Thunder, 52 Pick-Up and Night Game. His work was always strong (although I’ve only seen two of those movies), even if the movies he starred in weren’t always great.

Though that decade did bring the under-rated Peter Hyams movie 2010: The Year We Made Contact, a movie that is rarely spoken about but I think is pretty damn fine.

In the 90’s, he changed from a leading man to a supporting actor. Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch, playing second fiddle to Gary Oldman in Romeo is Bleeding and Coppola’s The Rainmaker. Though he did lead the 1990 cold war movie The Fourth War, a performance that should not be forgotten. He was also in that show Seaquest, remember that? Sadly I don’t remember ever seeing it but it’s a part of many writers memories of Scheider if you read other sites across the web today.

This decade saw him mostly stuck in the B-Movie abyss, including the two thrillers he had just completed Dark Honeymoon (completed) and Iron Cross (in post-production). Two movies we will probably not ever see unless we work hard to hunt for them on DVD.

Scheider’s last performance of note being Frank Castle’s father in The Punisher, four years ago.

Rob Scheider, a fabulous and under-rated actor who to me will always be Chief Brody from Jaws, the best everyman hero ever portrayed on screen. I will always remember him as one of the most convincing actors who played detective in film. One of the best leading men of the 70’s.

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