Though he’ll forever be known as Chief Brody, the shark-hunting sheriff in Steven Spielberg‘s “Jaws” (1975), Oscar-nominated actor Roy Scheider starred in a number of classics throughout his career before his death in 2008. Let’s take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.
Born in 1932 in Orange, New Jersey, Scheider’s journey towards the screen wasn’t exactly a straightforward one. After trying his hand at amateur boxing and serving in the military, he turned in his gloves and his uniform to set his sights on bit parts in movies and television. His big breakthrough came with William Friedkin‘s “The French Connection” (1971), a gritty police drama for which he earned an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor (the film won five prizes including Best Picture). He returned to the race with a Best Actor nomination for Bob Fosse‘s autobiographical musical “All That Jazz” (1979), for which he also competed at BAFTA and the Golden Globes.
But it was with his lead turn in Spielberg’s box office behemoth that Scheider became a household name. Few movie fans can forget the iconic moment when Brody, after seeing the massive man-eater for the first time, tells seaman Quint (Robert Shaw), “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Scheider reprised the role in the Spielberg-less sequel “Jaws 2” (1978), forever cementing his image as America’s favorite fisherman.
Tour our photo gallery of Scheider’s 15 greatest films, including some of the titles listed above, as well as “Klute” (1971), “Marathon Man” (1976), “Sorcerer” (1977) and more.
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15. THE FOURTH WAR (1990)
Image Credit: Kodiak/Kobal/Shutterstock Directed by John Frankenheimer. Written by Stephen Peters and Kenneth Ross. Starring Roy Scheider, Jurgen Prochnow, Tim Reid, Lara Harris, Harry Dean Stanton, Dale Dye.
Released at the end of our decades-long conflict with the Soviet Union, John Frankenheimer’s “The Fourth War” contains few surprises from a familiar genre, but it’s a sturdy entertainment that feels almost out of a bygone era. Scheider stars as Col. Jack Knowles, a Vietnam veteran who’s still hungry for conflict. Stationed at the West German-Czechoslovakia border, he engages in a battle of wills against Soviet Colonel Valachev (Jurgen Prochnow), who’s similarly anxious for war. Will these two hotheads disrupt peacetime and launch us into World War III? Funny enough, 1990 also found Scheider starring in the Cold War thriller “The Russia House.”
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14. THE RAINMAKER (1997)
Image Credit: Phillip Caruso/Paramount/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel by John Grisham. Starring Matt Damon, Claire Danes, Jon Voight, Mary Kay Place, Mickey Rourke, Danny DeVito, Roy Scheider.
The same year Matt Damon shot to stardom by writing and starring in “Good Will Hunting,” he headlined Francis Ford Coppola’s John Grisham adaptation “The Rainmaker,” playing a young lawyer who stumbles upon a lucrative insurance fraud case against a powerful corporation. Scheider stands out in a small role as Wilfred Keeley, a corrupt executive who goes head-to-head with Damon in an intense cross-examination. But everyone is a scene-stealer in the rich supporting cast, including Danny DeVito as an insurance assessor-turned-paralegal, Mickey Rourke as a sleazy ambulance chaser and Jon Voight as Damon’s rival attorney.
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13. THE RUSSIA HOUSE (1990)
Image Credit: MGM/Pathe/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock Directed by Fred Schepisi. Screenplay by Tom Stoppard, based on the novel by John le Carre. Starring Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer, Roy Scheider, James Fox, John Mahoney, Klaus Maria Brandauer.
The novels of John le Carre have produced movies both riveting and dull, and “The Russia House” falls somewhere in-between, a respectable, well-made adaptation that never really catches fire despite some riveting performances. Sean Connery plays Barley, a British publisher who becomes entangled in espionage when a manuscript containing sensitive information lands in his lap, courtesy of a mysterious Russian woman (Michelle Pfeiffer in a Golden Globe nominated performance). Scheider pops up as Russell, leader of a CIA team working with British intelligence to keep the case from becoming a Cold War catastrophe.
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12. ROMEO IS BLEEDING (1993)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Directed by Peter Medak. Written by Hilary Henkin. Starring Gary Oldman, Lena Olin, Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis, Roy Scheider.
One of the many ultra-cool neo-noirs released throughout the 1990s, Peter Medak’s “Romeo is Bleeding” amps the style, sex and bloodshed all the way up to 11, making for a film that will delight some, anger others and fascinate everyone. Gary Oldman stars as a corrupt, womanizing homicide detective who’s in the pocket of a Mafia crime boss (a scene-stealing Scheider). When he’s hired to kill a lethal Russian assassin (Lena Olin), he becomes sexually obsessed with his target, who seduces him with her sadomasochistic lovemaking skills. So yeah, it’s pretty far out there, but love it or hate it, you certainly won’t forget it.
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11. THE SEVEN-UPS (1973)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Directed by Philip D’Antoni. Screenplay by Albert Ruben and Alexander Jacobs, story by Sonny Grosso. Starring Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Larry Haines, Richard Lynch, Ken Kercheval.
Scheider is front and center in this pseudo-sequel to “The French Connection,” directed by that film’s Oscar-winning producer Philip D’Antoni. He plays more-or-less the same character as he did in the first film (albeit with a different last name), a hard-nosed New York City police detective in charge of an elite group of officers tracking down criminals whose offenses will get them a minimum of seven years in prison. While hunting down the man who killed his partner, he stumbles upon a citywide plot to kidnap mobsters for money, which he and the fellow “Seven-Ups” must find a way to quash before it’s too late.
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10. BLUE THUNDER (1983)
Image Credit: Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock Directed by John Badham. Written by Dan O’Bannon and Don Jakoby. Starring Roy Scheider, Warren Oats, Candy Clark, Daniel Stern, Malcolm McDowell.
Among the silliest action thrillers produced during the 1980s, “Blue Thunder” succeeds in spite of itself thanks to some sturdy direction by John Badham and a better-than-the-movie-deserves performance by Scheider. He plays Frank Murphy, a former Vietnam War chopper pilot now working for the LAPD. When he’s selected to fly a high-tech police helicopter to surveil possible terrorist attacks during the 1984 Olympics, he soon learns there are some sinister implications to the vehicle. Malcolm McDowell is a hoot as Scheider’s antagonist. An Oscar nominee for its flashy film editing, this is one to check your brain at the door for.
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9. 2010 (1984)
Image Credit: Mgm/Ua/Kobal/Shutterstock Written and directed by Peter Hyams, based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke. Starring Roy Scheider, John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban, Keir Dullea.
Suffice it to say, Stanley Kubrick’s revolutionary sci-fi flick “2001: A space Odyssey” (1968) was a tough act to follow, and while this sequel can’t hold a candle to the original, it’s still an impressive feat of entrainment in its own right. Peter Hyams’s “2010” seeks to explain what Kubrick’s original kept mysterious, with a joint US-Soviet expedition (led by Scheider as Dr. Heywood Floyd) sent to Jupiter to find out what happened to the Discovery One and the malfunctioning supercomputer HAL 9000. The impressive production earned Oscar nominations for its art direction, costumes, visual effects, sound and makeup.
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8. 52 PICK-UP (1986)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Directed by John Frankenheimer. Screenplay by John Steppling and Elmore Leonard, based on the novel by Elmore Leonard. Starring Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret, Vanity, John Glover, Clarence Williams III, Kelly Preston.
One of the many neo-noirs that popped up throughout the ‘70s and 80’s, John Frankenheimer’s “52 Pick-Up” is a slick, stylish entertainment that harkens back to a bygone era while still feeling strikingly contemporary. Adapted from the novel by master of pulp Elmore Leonard (who co-wrote the screenplay), it centers on a successful Los Angeles businessman (Scheider) who’s being blackmailed by three men with a tape of him and his mistress (Kelly Preston), which could damage the political ambitions of his wife (Ann-Margret). Rather than pay up, he decides to fight back, and things spiral out of control from there.
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7. NAKED LUNCH (1991)
Image Credit: Moviestore/Shutterstock Written and directed by David Cronenberg, based on the novel by William S. Burroughs. Starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider.
In adapting William S. Burroughs’s unadaptable book, David Cronenberg mixed in several elements from the author’s own life (including the writing of the novel itself) to create an oddball look at a fascinating literary figure and his signature work. Peter Weller stars as the Burroughs surrogate, Bill Lee, an exterminator who starts huffing his own bug killing powder to get high. When he accidentally kills his wife (Judy Davis) in a drunken game of “William Tell,” he becomes entangled in a vast government conspiracy involving giant bugs in Northern Africa. Scheider has a terrific supporting role as Dr. Benway, a shady physician who might be involved in the black market drug trade, at least according to some big ugly insects.
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6. MARATHON MAN (1976)
Image Credit: Paramount/Kobal/Shutterstock Directed by John Schlesinger. Screenplay by William Goldman, based on his novel. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller.
Going to the dentist has never been more terrifying than in John Schlesinger’s gripping political thriller. “Marathon Man” centers on a graduate student/long-distance runner (Dustin Hoffman) whose brother (Scheider), a mysterious secret agent, unwittingly draws him into a complex mystery involving stolen diamonds, shadowy government agencies and a Nazi war criminal (Laurence Olivier) now working as a periodontist. There are few scenes as terrifying as the one where Olivier (who earned a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for the role) uses his dental instruments to torture the inside of Hoffman’s mouth, all while benignly asking, “Is it safe?” If nothing will encourage you to floss, the fear of pissing off Dr. Christian Szell will!
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5. KLUTE (1971)
Image Credit: Snap Stills/Shutterstock Directed by Alan J. Pakula. Written by Andy Lewis and Dave Lewis. Starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi, Roy Scheider.
The first of Alan J. Pakula’s unofficial “paranoia trilogy” (followed by 1974’s “The Parallax View” and 1976’s “All the President’s Men”), “Klute” is a super-sexy noir thriller that provided movie audiences with a revolutionary kind of heroine: self-assured, fiercely independent and sexually open. Jane Fonda won the first of two Best Actress Oscars for playing Bree Daniels, a high-dollar call girl/aspiring actress who assists small town detective John Klute (Donald Sutherland) in a missing person investigation. Scheider costars as Bree’s former pimp, Frank Ligourin, whose easy charm masks a sinister dark side. Thanks to this and his Oscar-nominated turn in “The French Connection,” 1971 was a banner year in launching the actor into stardom.
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4. SORCERER (1977)
Image Credit: Paramount/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock Directed by William Friedkin. Screenplay by Walon Green, based on the novel ‘Le Salaire de la peur’ by Georges Arnaud. Starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, Amidou, Ramon Bieri.
A notorious flop in its time (it had the misfortune of opening shortly after “Star Wars” became a pop culture phenomenon), William Friedkin’s “Sorcerer” has enjoyed a critical reexamination in recent years from devoted cineasts. A loose remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s “The Wages of Fear” (1953), it’s a dark, unrelenting thriller about a group of desperate men who agree to transport gallons of nitroglycerin across the treacherous South American jungle. Scheider is front and center as Scanlan, aka “Dominguez,” a grizzled American tasked with driving the truck filled with the lethal fluid. Featuring a haunting synth score by Tangerine Dream, this is one that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat and away from bridges for the rest of your life.
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3. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)
Image Credit: Snap Stills/Shutterstock Directed by William Friedkin. Screenplay by Ernest Tidyman, based on the book by Robin Moore. Starring Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Marcel Bozzuffi.
With “The French Connection,” William Friedkin turned the police drama on its head, making it nastier, grittier and more relentlessly brutal. He also presented us with an antihero — the openly bigoted, violent-tempered detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) — who looked a lot more like actual cops than the ones previously presented on movie screens. Based on a true story, it centers on the efforts of Doyle and his partner, fellow narcotics detective Buddy “Cloudy” Russo (Scheider), to track down a wealthy French heroin smuggler (Fernando Rey) shipping drugs into New York City. The film brought Scheider an Oscar nomination in Best Supporting Actor and won five prizes including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.
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2. ALL THAT JAZZ (1979)
Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/Columbia/Kobal/Shutterstock Directed by Bob Fosse. Written by Robert Alan Aurthur and Bob Fosse. Starring Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, Leland Palmer, Ann Reinking, Ben Vereen.
A sort of “8 1/2” featuring song and dance, “All That Jazz” finds director-choreographer Bob Fosse examining his own life in stylish, brutally honest fashion. Scheider plays Joe Gideon, a Fosse surrogate who pops pills, chases women and destroys relationships while simultaneously editing a movie and mounting a Broadway show. But his relentless schedule of work and vice gets the best of him, and he’s soon on the operating table for open-heart surgery. The final act — a dazzling musical sequence with scenes from Joe’s past coming back to haunt him — is mesmerizing. The film earned nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Scheider (it won prizes for art direction, costumes, film editing and music).
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1. JAWS (1975)
Image Credit: Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock Directed by Steven Spielberg. Written by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, based on the novel by Benchley. Starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Gottlieb.
“We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” As Chief Brody, the everyman sheriff of a small New England beach town terrorized by a killer shark, Scheider forever entered the pop culture lexicon as one of cinema’s greatest heroes. And at the tender age of 29, Steven Spielberg became king of the box office with this rip-roaring adventure yarn, which won three Oscars and contended in Best Picture. Though it features several hair-raising sequences, the real heart of the film is the relationship between its three central characters — Scheider as Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as marine biologist Hooper and Robert Shaw as crusty fisherman Quint — who set sail to kill the beast. Scheider reprised the character in the 1978 sequel “Jaws 2.”
