Where Is the Cast of Jaws 50 Years Later?
Let's take a look back at the actors (and non-actors) who helped launch cinema's first summer blockbuster.
Half a century ago, a little-known director by the name of Steven Spielberg reshaped the face of cinema forever with a little picture called Jaws (the 50th Anniversary Edition is now available from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment). Maybe you've heard of it? An adaptation of Peter Benchley's bestselling novel of the same name, the maritime thriller about a small island town terrorized by a man-eating great white shark is credited with inventing the summer blockbuster.
But Spielberg didn't do it alone. A great deal of the lion's share (or shark's share in this case) must be given to the actors who brought the story to vivid life. Would we be still be talking about Jaws with the same amount of reverence we do today if Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss were not the ones to set sail and hunt down a feared predator of the deep?
RELATED: Everything to Know About Jaws – 50 Years Later
On that note, let's take a look at what happened to the Jaws cast after the film's release in 1975.
Where is the cast of Jaws now?
Roy Scheider (Sheriff Brody)
Scheider worked in Hollywood for several more decades after Jaws, appearing in such high-profile projects as Marathon Man, Sorcerer, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, and SeaQuest DSV (now streaming on Peacock). He also reprised the role of Chief Brody in 1978's Jaws 2, helmed by director Jeannot Szwarc. Scheider passed away in 2008 at the age of 75 following a battle with cancer.
Lorraine Gary (Ellen Brody)
Interestingly, Lorraine Gary (née Gottfried) was married to Sidney "Sid" Sheinberg, the head of Universal Pictures who took a shot on a young Steven Spielberg (the gamble obviously paid off). She returned to play Ellen Brody in Jaws 2 and Jaws: The Revenge, the latter of which co-starred Michael Caine. Gary is now 87 and retired from the world of acting.
Richard Dreyfuss (Hooper)
Two years after playing lovestruck teen Curt Henderson in George Lucas's coming-of-age opus American Graffiti, Dreyfuss took to the high seas as shark expert Matt Hooper in Jaws. From there, he'd reunite with Spielberg two more times on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Always (1989). At 77-years-old, Dreyfuss continues to act in films and television projects, his most recent roles coming via Sweetwater and Waltzing with Brando.
Robert Shaw (Quint)
Robert Shaw delivered one of the most memorable salty sea dogs to ever grace the silver screen. His portrayal of the shark-hunting Captain Quint is both enigmatic and spooky. The actor died of a heart attack in 1978 at the age of 51. His son, Ian, currently portrays his father in The Shark is Broken, an acclaimed stage play centered around the tumultuous Jaws production.
Murray Hamilton (Mayor Larry Vaughn)
Hamilton had been a veteran of film and television for three solid decades when he landed the role of Amity Island's sleazy mayor. As this viral meme points out, Vaughn is somehow still in office when the events of Jaws 2 get going, even though his gross negligence led to the deaths of several people in the first movie. Hamilton continued to act for another 20 years, enjoying parts in The Amityville Horror, 1941, and The Golden Girls until his death from lung cancer in 1986 at the age of 63.
Susan Backlinie (Chrissie Watkins)
A veteran stuntwoman, actress, and animal trainer, Backlinie was hired to play the shark's first victim because of her proficiency in diving and swimming. Backlinie spoofed her iconic Jaws role a few years later in Spielberg's oft-forgotten World War II comedy, 1941. Despite scaring an entire generation of kids away from the water, Backlinie seemed to have no fear of the deep ocean as an avid scuba diver who swam comfortably alongside sharks off the coast of Australia (via The Palm Beach Post). She retired from stunt-work in the 1980s and became a regular on the fan convention circuit before her death in 2024 at the age of 77.
Lee Fierro (Mrs. Kintner)
Lee Fierro returned to the franchise over a decade later, making a brief cameo as bereaved mother Mrs. Kintner in Jaws: The Revenge. A longtime resident of Martha's Vineyard (where Jaws was filmed), Fierro mentored over a thousand young theater actors under the Island Theatre Workshop. She moved to Ohio in 2017 to be closer to family before passing away from COVID-related complications in April 2020 at the age of 91.
Jeffrey Voorhees (Alex Kintner)
Like many side characters in the film, Jeffrey Voorhees was a native of Martha's Vineyard, where production took place. All these years later, he still lives on the island and receives residual checks whenever his iconic Jaws death scene plays on TV. Voorhees previously managed a restaurant called The Wharf, which once served as an unexpected reunion venue for him and Fierro. On occasion, he flies out to various fan conventions around the country and takes part in Jaws-themed tours of the movie's various shooting locations.
Peter Benchley (author of Jaws/reporter on beach)
Before Peter Benchley published his bestselling novel with Doubleday in 1974, the film rights were scooped up by Hollywood producers Richard D. Zanuck and David Brown (foreshadowing the way in which Jurassic Park would get made two decades later). While it had already sold millions of copies before the movie came out, the book literally began flying off the shelves once the now-classic adaptation took a bite out of theaters. Benchley, who cameos in Jaws as the beachside reporter discussing Amity's shark problem, wrote several more ocean-based thrillers like The Deep and Beast, though none reached the same cultural apex as his sharp-toothed fiction debut. The author died of pulmonary fibrosis in 2006 at the age of 65.
Jeffrey Kramer (Deputy Leonard Hendricks)
Kramer, now aged 79, was just 29-years-old when he stepped into the shoes of Deputy Hendricks, the officer unfortunate enough to find the crab-eaten remains of the late Chrissie Watkins. In addition to Jaws and its 1978 sequel, the actor also enjoyed roles in M*A*S*H, Happy Days, The Incredible Hulk, Halloween II, and Clue. He later became involved in TV development at Fox, guiding hit shows like The X-Files and Ally McBeal to the small screen.
Carl Gottlieb (Screenwriter, Harry Meadows)
Beyond sharing screenplay credit with Benchley, Gottlieb also makes a cameo in the film as Harry Meadows, the Amity Island journalist hoping to nab a photo of the dead tiger shark for the local paper. Following the massive success of the original, he'd go on to co-write the scripts for the next two sequels: Jaws 2 (1978) and Jaws 3-D (1983). More recently, Gottlieb — who is now 87 — served as Secretary-Treasurer for WGA West and appeared in an episode of Decker.
Chris Rebello (Michael Brody)
Aside from his close shave with a great white as Chief Brody's elder son, Chris Rebello never appeared in any other movies. Like Jeffrey Voorhees, he was a native of Martha's Vineyard, where the film was shot. As an adult, he worked as an assistant football coach at Martha's Vineyard Regional High School prior to his death, the result of a heart attack, at the age of 37 in the year 2000. The character of Michael Brody was played by Mark Gruner, Dennis Quaid, and Lance Guest in the subsequent Jaws sequels.
Jay Mello (Sean Brody)
Similar to Rebello, Jay Mello's first and only film job was as the young Sean Brody in Jaws. He did look back on the film several decades later in the 2007 documentary, The Shark Is Still Working: The Impact & Legacy of Jaws. It's unclear what he's up to these days, but the character of Sean was recast for the sequels, with Marc Gilpin, John Putch, and Mitchell Anderson all stepping into the role.
The 50th Anniversary Edition of Jaws is currently available to purchase via Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
