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Dig A Hole: Roy Scheider

February 11th, 2008 by Scott Marks

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One of Mr. Scheider’s earliest roles was opposite George Segal & Sterling Hayden in Loving

Roy Scheider is a great example of an actor I always enjoyed watching even though only five (Klute, The French Connection, The Last Embrace, The Russia House & Naked Lunch) of the almost seventy films he appeared in would be welcome in my video collection.

CNN reports, “Scheider died Sunday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital in Little Rock, hospital spokesman David Robinson said. The hospital did not release a cause of death.” He was 75.

Mr. Scheider got his start on TV soaps landing regular roles on The Edge of Night, Love of Life and The Secret Storm. Initially Scheider appeared poised to chart a career playing characters on both sides of the law in tough, urban crime dramas. He played a hit man in Stiletto (1969) and Jane Fonda’s former pimp in Klute before picking up his first Academy Award nomination as Gene Hackman’s partner in The French Connection.

For better or worse, Scheider will always be remembered for delivering the line, “You’re gonna’ need a bigger boat” in spielberg’s mongoloid-pleasing mechanical fish tale. As Dave Kehr so brilliantly pointed out, Jaws proved “that actors and characters were completely redundant in the shopping center cinema of the 70s.”

All That Jazz is Scheider’s show. Based on the life of choreographer/director Bob Fosse, Scheider is the film’s auteur, doing everything is his power to hold together Fosse’s frenetic, at times sloppy narrative. The role earned him a second Academy Award nomination, and in spite of that he’s brilliant.

In Marathon Man, cast opposite hambone Laurence Olivier and a maddeningly method Dustin Hoffman, Scheider quietly steals every scene he’s in.

Scheider possessed a great athletic look; lean, tough, a tan that rivaled George Hamilton’s and a profile that indicated he used a steam iron for a washcloth. He also a commanding sense of sartorial nuance; next to Sean Connery, Scheider was one of the few actors capable of transforming a turtleneck into a fashion statement.

Inexplicably, Scheider was quick to fall out of fashion and roles in major movies became unobtainable. He continued to work, but mainly in grade C espionage thrillers (The Peacekeeper, Executive Target, Chain of Command and Red Serpent) that never made it to a theater near me.

With the passing of Roy Scheider we also lose a world class Bush hater. The actor participated in rallies protesting U.S. military action in Iraq, including a massive New York demonstration in March 2003 that police said drew 125,000 chanting activists.

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Filed Under Obituaries