Roy Scheider was an exceptionally talented American actor who rose to fame, playing tough guy characters in films like, ‘The French Connection’, ‘Jaws’, its sequel ‘Jaws 2’ and ‘Marathon Man’. Son of an auto mechanic, Scheider did not intend to become an actor early in his life. In fact, he was initially interested in athletics. He played baseball and served as an amateur boxer in the Diamond Gloves Boxing Tournament before the acting bug bit him. He learned acting from Rutgers and Franklin and Marshall College. He made his debut in films in 1963 with 'The Curse of the Living Corpse’. After a couple of average films, he got his big breakthrough in cinema in 1971 with the films, ‘Klute’ and ‘The French Connection’. Soon, his reputation as a tough guy character in the film industry was seeded. Thereafter he was cast for Steven Spielberg’s ‘Jaws’, a movie adaptation of Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel of the same name. ‘Jaws’ became the most successful film in Scheider’s career. For years, it held the record of being the most grossing film of all time. After the phenomenal success of ‘Jaws’, Scheider featured in ‘All That Jazz’, ‘Jaws 2’, ‘Blue Thunder’, ‘Romeo is Bleeding’ and so on. Apart from films, he also appeared in television shows, such as Steven Spielberg’s ‘Seaquest DSV’, ‘Third Watch’, ‘Love of Life’ and ‘The Secret Storm’