Roy Scheider, best known for his role as Chief Martin Brody in Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, died yesterday afternoon in Little Rock, AK. He was 75 and lived in Sag Harbor, N.Y.

Scheider had suffered from multiple myeloma for several years, and died of complications from a staph infection, his wife, Brenda Seimer, said.

Though he attained cult status from 1975’s Jaws, Scheider made his film debut in 1964 in Del Tenney’s low-budget horror The Curse of the Living Corpse, and went on to star in The French Connection and All That Jazz, both of which earned him Oscar nominations, as well as in 2010, Still of the Night, and David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch. In the mid-1990’s, Scheider starred as futuristic submarine captain Nathan Bridger in the scifi TV series SeaQuest DSV.

Here’s more on Scheider’s life from the NY Times obituary:

Born in 1932 in Orange, N.J., Mr. Scheider earned his distinctive broken nose in the New Jersey Diamond Gloves Competition. He studied at Rutgers and at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa., where he graduated as a history major with the intention of going to law school. He served three years in the United States Air Force, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. When he was discharged, he returned to Franklin and Marshall to star in a production of “Richard III.” …

Living in Sag Harbor, Mr. Scheider continued to appear in films and lend his voice to documentaries, becoming, Ms. Seimer said, increasingly politically active. With the poet Kathy Engle, he helped to found the Hayground School in Bridgehampton, dedicated to creating an innovative, culturally diverse learning environment for local children. At the time of his death, Mr. Scheider was involved in a project to build a film studio in Florence, Italy, for a series about the history of the Renaissance.

Besides his wife, his survivors include three children, Christian Verrier Scheider and Molly Mae Scheider, with Ms. Seimer, and Maximillia Connelly Lord, from an earlier marriage, to Cynthia Bebout; a brother, Glenn Scheider of Summit, N.J.; and two grandchildren.

[Source: NY Times]