The Only Major Actors Still Alive From Jaws
"Jaws" is an immortal classic, but decades on from its 1975 release, several of the movie's principal players have left us. Peter Benchley, the source novel's author and the film's co-writer turned shark conservationist, passed in 2006. Robert Shaw, who played the shark-hating fisherman Quint, died in 1978, a mere three years after the premiere of "Jaws." Shaw still left his mark on film history thanks to his masterful monologue about Quint's experience during the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis.
Of course, the biggest winner of "Jaws" was director Steven Spielberg, who entered the production of "Jaws" as a scrappy young upstart and turned it into his first rung while climbing the Hollywood lader. Spielberg is the most influential American filmmaker of his generation and the ones that have followed. He's never lost his magic touch either, so we can only hope and pray he stays with us even longer.
In the years since then, we've lost plenty more of the "Jaws" cast. Which of them are still with us, and how have they left their mark since they shot the film?
Richard Dreyfuss (Matt Hooper)
The triumvirate of "Jaws" is police chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), Quint, and Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), a cocky marine biologist; they're the only human characters present in the second half of "Jaws," when the film goes out to sea and the shark hunt is underway.
After Scheider passed away in 2008, Dreyfuss is the last actor of this trio still with us. He's not headlining blockbusters these days, but he's still working. He never returned for any of the "Jaws" sequels and the career he built after the first film is one to be proud of, though he's not a figure free of controversy.
Dreyfuss re-teamed with Spielberg two years later in 1977 for "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" — the same year he starred in "The Goodbye Girl" and went on to win Best Actor at the 50th Academy Awards. Some of his other most famous films include "Stand By Me," "Postcards from the Edge," and "Mr. Holland's Opus." In his later years, he found a niche playing morally compromised politicians; a rival senator in "The American President," a tested President in a 2000 remake of Sidney Lumet's "Fail Safe," and former Vice President Dick Cheney in Oliver Stone's "W."
Lorraine Gary (Ellen Brody)
Brody's wife Ellen is the female lead of "Jaws," if only for the first hour — her last pointed appearance is running offscreen in fear before her husband sets out on his shark-slaying voyage. Lorraine Gary wound up being the most recurring (human) face in "Jaws," returning for the diminishing returns of "Jaws 2" and "Jaws: The Revenge."
Gary was primarily a television actor, with several guest appearances on "Ironside" (as different characters in each episode) during the late 1960s. She has only eight film credits, five of them outside the "Jaws" series — after "Jaws 2," her only other film credits are George Burns comedy "Just You and Me, Kid," Spielberg's "1941," and finally "Jaws: The Revenge."
After the indignity of "Jaws: The Revenge," Gary retired and has spent her time since as an activist. For instance, she is a prominent member of the Feminist Majority Foundation (under her married surname Sheinberg).
Susan Backlinie (Chrissie Watkins)
Here's some sweet irony; the first victim in "Jaws" is one of the increasingly few cast members still with us. The opening scene of "Jaws" (after the initial POV shot of the shark cruising the shallows, introducing us to John Williams' "dun-dun" theme) shows drunk teenager Chrissie Watkins decides to take a night swim. Then, she's horrifyingly pulled underwater by the unseen shark.
Backlinie was not just an actor, but a stunt performer — after all, the demands of her "Jaws" appearance were mostly physical. She didn't stay in the movie business for long (her last film credit is 1981's "The Great Muppet Caper") but got another chance to work with Spielberg in "1941," where she parodied the "Jaws" opening (this time, it was a submarine stalking the swimming girl, not a shark).
Backlinie told the Boston Globe in 2012 that, "I left the business about seven years after 'Jaws' to go sailing around the world. Covered everything but the Panama Canal." She's since worked as an animal trainer and a computer accountant.
Carl Gottlieb (Ben Meadows)
Small-town politics are an important theme of "Jaws" and that would be incomplete without the media, personified by reporter Ben Meadows — if you didn't notice him, he's the mustachioed man standing alongside Mayor Larry Vaughn (the late Murray Hamilton) when the Mayor first confronts Chief Brody about the shark.
Meadows was played by Carl Gottlieb, who had a much more important role in "Jaws" — he was the film's co-writer, revising Benchley's original draft during principal photography. He then co-penned the scripts for both "Jaws 2" and "Jaws 3-D," not to mention co-writing "The Jerk" alongside Michael Elias and star Steve Martin.
Gottlieb never surpassed the success of "Jaws"; his directing credits include B-movies "Caveman" and "Amazon Women on the Moon." However, he's helped curate the film's legacy and I don't mean by co-writing the sequels. Rather, he wrote the behind-the-scenes book, "The Jaws Log," chronicling the epic and often error-prone journey it took to make the film.
Jeffrey Kramer (Deputy Lenny Hendricks)
"Jaws" is set on the fictional Amity Island, but it was filmed on Massachusetts's island Martha's Vineyard, a historical fishing village turned into an upscale summer home paradise. Many of the minor characters were played by Vineyard's residents, such as Jeffrey Kramer. Kramer played Lenny Hendricks, Brody's deputy at the Amity Police Department. Kramer's grandfather was Henry Cronig, a Martha's Vineyard real estate mogul, and his family maintained a home on the island.
Hendricks is a background character, but he's in that background enough to be memorable; his nearly vomiting at the sight of Chrissie's remains tells the audience all they need to know without seeing the body.
Kramer wound up returning as Hendricks for "Jaws 2" — he takes over as police chief after Brody is voted out. He continued to act during the 1980s, appearing in "Halloween II" as a medical examiner and "Clue" as the ill-fated motorist. Eventually, he transitioned to producing television — he produced "Ally McBeal" and "The Practice." To this day, he's not shy about embracing his "Jaws" legacy either.
Jeffrey Vorhees (Alex Kintner)
Another of Bruce the Shark's victims is still with us in reality. Alex Kintner, a grade school-aged boy, is the second (human) to be killed by the shark; note how he's wearing red swimming shorts, some color-coded foreshadowing of his bloody fate.
Unlike Chrissie, his death happens in broad daylight with a beach full of vacationers watching; it's his death that really kicks off the shark hunt, especially since his mother (Lee Fierro) offers up a bounty.
Voorhees, who shot the scene when he was 12 years old, was one of the Martha's Vineyard residents recruited from local casting calls. His acting career didn't take off, with only a few minor credits (including on the soap opera "Santa Barbara"). However, he still lives on Martha's Vineyard and runs the local pub The Wharf. Speaking to Australian outlet The New Daily in 2014, he attested that this and "Jaws" have made him into a local celebrity, to his continuing surprise.
Jay Mello (Sean Brody)
The Brodys have two young sons, Michael and Sean, and Martin's paternal instinct drives his hunt for the shark.
Michael, the older son, narrowly escapes the shark. He was played by Chris Rebello, who went on to become a football coach at Martha's Vineyard Regional High School before dying of a heart attack in 2000 at the tragically young age of 37.
Sean Brody, the younger of the two, gets a memorable scene when he imitates his father's expressions at the dinner table. He was played by Jay Mello, who never made another film. According to "Just When You Thought It Was Safe: A Jaws Companion" by Patrick Jankiewicz, Mello worked in public relations for a time (his client was the boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler) and lives in Vermont, now working as a furniture designer. In 2009, he was charged with lewd conduct with a minor and given a probation sentence.
The Brody brothers are played by different actors in every subsequent film: Michael was played by Mark Gruner ("Jaws 2"), Dennis Quaid ("Jaws 3-D"), and Lance Guest (in "Jaws: The Revenge"). Sean was played by Marc Gilpin in "Jaws 2" (who died of cancer at age 56 in July 2023), by John Putch in "Jaws 3-D," and by Mitchell Anderson in "The Revenge" (where the character was killed by the film's shark).