Roy Scheider, R.I.P.

[dirac]

GWTW asked me to put up a post noting the death of Roy Scheider, who is gone at age 75.

The hospital did not release a cause of death, but Scheider had been treated for multiple myeloma at the hospital's Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy for the past two years.

NYT obituary.

“Jaws 2” failed to recapture the appeal of the first film, but Mr. Scheider bounced back, accepting the principal role in Bob Fosse’s autobiographical phantasmagoria of 1979, “All That Jazz.” Equipped with Mr. Fosse’s Mephistophelean beard and manic drive, Mr. Scheider’s character, Joe Gideon, gobbled amphetamines in an attempt to stage a new Broadway show while completing the editing of a film (and pursuing a parade of alluring young women) — a monumental act of self-abuse that leads to open-heart surgery. This won Mr. Scheider an Academy Award nomination in the best actor category. (Dustin Hoffman won that year, for “Kramer vs. Kramer.”)

In 1980, Mr. Scheider returned to his first love, the stage, where his performance in a production of Harold Pinter’s “Betrayal” opposite Blythe Danner and Raul Julia earned him the Drama League of New York award for distinguished performance.

Maybe he wasn’t the most glamourous actor in the world but I always liked to see him, and he could display a certain Bogart/Belmondo flair in the right role. He was a great reactor, too; I love the “I–can’t-believe-I’m-out-in-the-middle-of-the-ocean with-this-raving-loon” looks he keeps shooting in the direction of Robert Shaw in “Jaws.” He’s amazing in “All That Jazz” although I think Fosse has to get some of the credit – Scheider never managed quite that kind of attack again. He also appeared to good effect in “Sorcerer” and I have a perverse fondness for “Still of the Night,” although it really isn’t very good. There were a lot of great things about movies in the seventies and early eighties, and Scheider was one of them. R.I.P.

[Mel Johnson]

I still remember his de profundis cry to God, "Whatsamatter, ya don't like musical comedy?"

Well done.

May he have eternal rest,

May light perpetual shine upon him.

(I can hear him now, "How am I supposed to get any rest with all this damn light?!")

[papeetepatrick]

He was also good in 1987's 'Fifty-Two Pickup' with Ann-Margret. Both were also in an even better film from 1973, a noir starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Ann-Margret primarily, but also with Scheider and Angie Dickinson--'The Man Outside'. Few seem to have seen this, and it's probably not that easy to get.

[Petra]

Thanks, dirac. I've managed to get the hang of the 'quotes' but not of the 'links'...

I loved Scheider in 'All That Jazz'. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that the scene where he gets up, can't move, swallows a bunch of pills, snaps his fingers and says 'It's showtime, folk' has always been a source of great inspiration to me - especially before job interviews.

I never knew he was supposed to get de Niro's role in 'The Deer Hunter'. That would have been a very different movie. Scheider's persona has/had a lot more vulnerability than de Niro.

[dirac]

It's perfectly okay, BTW, to just copy and paste the link without embedding. I'm not particular.

That would have been a very different movie. Scheider's persona has/had a lot more vulnerability than de Niro.

And Scheider was older, too, which would have created a different dynamic between that character and the ones played by Streep and Walken. Would have been interesting to see.