By Jeffrey Jolson
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 2/12/08 — There is a line in “All That Jazz” where Roy Scheider goes to meet the Angel of Death and the music is playing “Bye, bye love/Bye, bye happiness/I think I’m gonna die.” Scheider says “To be on the wire is life. The rest is waiting.”
Scheider, a two-time Academy Award nominee, lived his life on that wire. Career highs like “Jaws” and slips like “Naked Lunch” never slowed him from getting back on the tightrope each day with a resolved “It’s Showtime, folks,” like that Joe Gideon-Bob Fosse character in “All that Jazz.”
His fall only came in Little Rock, Arkansas on Sunday when he died from a staph infection after suffering multiple myeloma for years, according to his wife, Brenda Seimer.
He was nominated for an Oscar for that role, and he never compromised any more than Joe Gideon did or bargain as with the film’s depiction of Kubler-Ross’ famed five stages of death.
He was also nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar in 1971 for “The French Connection,” in which he played New York police detective Buddy Russo, partner to Gene Hackman’s high-strung Popeye Doyle.
He achieved the box office pinnacle at the time as the reluctant sheriff in “Jaws” with a sarcastic line that summed up his attitude of marching on, even when the foe was many times your size. “I think we’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
Scheider brought that same heroism and grace to roles as a high-tech chopper pilot in “Blue Thunder” (1984), a space scientist in “2010″ (1984) or a blackmail victim in “52 Pickup” (1986).
Outside of his film career, Scheider was active in East End causes, helping co-found the Hayground School in Bridgehampton, which is dedicated to creating a progressive, culturally diverse educational environment for local children. Scheider “was deeply committed to the school in every way,” said Jonathan Snow, another of the school’s founders.
Born in Orange, N.J., Scheider was athletically gifted, specializing in organized baseball and boxing. He studied drama at both Rutgers and Franklin and Marshall College. After a stint in the U.S. Air Force, he made his mark on Off-Broadway and in TV roles.
Scheider is also survived by his children, Maximilla, Christian and Molly.
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