The Impact of Roy Scheider

On February 10 of this year, one of my favorite actors, Roy Scheider, passed away in Little Rock, AR. I was rather startled to hear the news, the same as I was startled when I heard that George C. Scott, who played the title character in Patton and the insane General Buck Turgidson in Dr. Strangelove had died. The same as when I heard on the CBS Evening News in Petersburg, VA in the summer of 1999 that Mario Puzo, author of The Godfather, was gone. The same as when I heard Ingmar Bergman, director of The Seventh Seal, had passed away.

Roy Scheider was a great actor who played in some of the movies most memorable to me. Most famously, he was Police Chief Martin Brody in the 1975 groundbreaking film, Jaws. He also had large roles in The French Connection and Marathon Man. Watching the commentary track for the French Connection, I remember laughing when hearing the story of how the director made the comment that Scheider was too short while Scheider auditioned on stage. Scheider heard that comment, coming out of the dark in the audience, and proceeded to curse the director for making such a remark while he performed. At any rate, Scheider got the role.

What especially surprised me is that I had thought of Scheider about three days before he died. He and another actor (whom I will not name out of fear of hexing him) crossed my mind as two old men whom I had not seen in film or TV recently. I remember thinking that I would not be surprised to read their obituaries soon. Scheider's came, and it is the first time in my life that I called it that closely. This is not a skill I wish to develop.

When I was an undergraduate at WCU, I took "Themes in Film: Existentialism" with Dr. Meigs in the English Department. One of the films we watched in the Natural Sciences auditorium was All That Jazz starring Roy Scheider. Released in 1979, Scheider plays Joe Gideon, an overworked Broadway director nearing death. Jessica Lange plays "Angelique," literally the angel of death who begins visiting Scheider's character as he prepares for open heart surgery. The film can be intense at times, with Gideon talking to Angelique and recalling the most important moments and people from his life. As he comes to the end, all those people are there in a vision, cheering him on. I remember seeing Roy Scheider gulp, his Adam's Apple move up and down as he heads down the black tunnel not to return.

I thought, "Someday that is going to be Roy Scheider for real, not just the character he plays. I wonder how that will feel to him. Will he remember this role? Will it help him?"

That was nine years ago I took the class and saw All That Jazz. It seems like yesterday. Well, now Scheider's time has come and gone. I don't know the answers to the questions I asked then, but new thoughts come to mind now that Scheider is no longer with us in this world: One day that is going to be me, not Roy Scheider or the character he played. I wonder if I will remember his movie. I wonder if it will help me. Nine years ago was yesterday. Will my time be tomorrow?

Wow. Maybe this is a little too heavy for a student blog.

I do wish Roy Scheider was still alive, and my condolences go out to his family. I enjoyed watching him work.

Until Next Time,

Nathan Marshburn