Roy Scheider

Roy Richard Scheider (; November 10, 1932 – February 10, 2008) was an American actor and amateur boxer. Described by AllMovie as "one of the most unique and distinguished of all Hollywood actors", he gained fame for his leading and supporting roles in celebrated films from the 1970s through to the early to mid-1980s. He was nominated for two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award. His best-known roles include Chief Martin Brody in Jaws (1975) and its sequel Jaws 2 (1978); NYPD Detective "Cloudy" Russo in The French Connection (1971); NYPD Detective "Buddy" in The Seven-Ups (1973); Doc Levy in Marathon Man (1976); Jackie Scanlon / Juan Dominguez in Sorcerer (1977); choreographer and film director Joe Gideon in All That Jazz (1979); Officer Frank Murphy in Blue Thunder (1983); and Dr. Heywood R. Floyd in the 1984 film 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. He was also known for playing Captain Nathan Bridger in the science-fiction television series seaQuest DSV (1993–1996). Early life Scheider was born in Orange, New Jersey, the son of Anna (née Crosson) and auto mechanic Roy Bernhard Scheider. Scheider's mother was of Irish descent with an Irish Catholic background, while his father was a Protestant German American. As a child, Scheider was an athlete, participating in organized baseball and boxing competitions, for which he was classed as a welterweight, weighing in at 140 lb (63.5 kg). Scheider competed in the Diamond Gloves Boxing Tournament in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, graduating in 1950, and was inducted into the school's hall of fame in 1985. He traded his boxing gloves for the stage, studying drama at both Rutgers University and Franklin and Marshall College, where he was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. Amateur boxing Between 1946 and 1949, Scheider boxed as an amateur in New Jersey. Scheider said in a television interview in the 1980s that he took up boxing to lose weight. He said he had no desire to fight, but that his trainer, Georgie Ward, encouraged him to compete. In his second bout, at the 1946 Diamond Gloves Tournament (Golden Gloves), Scheider suffered a broken nose and lost by technical knockout in two rounds to Myron Greenberg. He went on to post an 11–1 (six knockouts) record, reversing his defeat by Greenberg in the process.