Darwin saaad....Bridger gone
Veteran actor Roy Scheider passed away today at the age of 75. A cause of death was not given, however he has been treated in recent years for multiple myelome, a type of cancer which affects cells in bone marrow.
Scheider is most famous for his role as Police Chief Martin Brody in the first two Jaws films, as well as Captain Nathan Bridger in the television series seaQuest DSV, both projects involving Steven Spielberg as prodcuer or director.
Later in his career, despite earlier success his roles were mostly in lower rated films, often playing military officers or the President (a role he played 3 times).
He is survived by his three children and his wife Brenda.
Fail. It's Scheider.
Posted by: | Feb 10, 2008 11:10:11 PM
Damn, I'll never forget him as Frank Murphy in "Blue Thunder," which, of course, inspired the classic 80s TV show "Airwolf" (and a less-than-classic TV show by the same name that lacked both Roy Scheider and Daniel Stern).
Catch ya later, Roy.
Posted by: | Feb 10, 2008 11:20:13 PM
Brendan-
Off topic, but Richard Zednik with the Florida Panthers had his jugular vein slashed tonight at the Buffalo Sabres...
http://ballhype.com/video/richard_zednik_cut_by_skate/
It definitely echoes the throat slit to Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk in 1989...
http://www.truveo.com/Clint-Malarchuk-throat-slit-by-skate-Full-from-3/id/3402497539
Posted by: Mad Max, Esquire | Feb 10, 2008 11:20:47 PM
In one sense, watching that video made me want to slit my throat. At the same time, though, watching that video made me never want to slit my throat.
Posted by: Condor | Feb 10, 2008 11:54:41 PM
"We're gonna need a bigger boat."
RIP.
Posted by: texasyank | Feb 11, 2008 12:02:23 AM
Damn! You beat me to the quote, texasyank. :) RIP,
Posted by: Joe Loy | Feb 11, 2008 12:28:42 AM
That Malarchuk injury caused nine fans to faint and two to suffer heart attacks:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/writers/pete_mcentegart/09/16/ten.spot/index.html
Posted by: Condor | Feb 11, 2008 12:46:27 AM
Richard Zednik's injury didn't look as bad as Malarchuk's, but that may be partly due to my being much younger when Malarchuk got sliced. Still horrifying to see every time something like this happens, which thankfully is very rare.
Posted by: Mike's brother Matt | Feb 11, 2008 2:27:15 AM
Great headline. RIP Captain Bridger.
Posted by: Brendan | Feb 11, 2008 6:36:20 AM
Too bad it wasn't Rob Schneider.
Posted by: Wobbly H | Feb 11, 2008 6:36:39 AM
Heh.
Posted by: Brendan | Feb 11, 2008 7:57:00 AM
"Well, I may not be the swiftest guy in the world, even when I'm not hungover, but I think I do remember a process where you people ask me questions and I give you answers, and I ask you questions and you give me answers, and that's the way we find out things. I think I read that in a manual somewhere."
Dr. Heywood Floyd -- 2010: The Year We Make Contact
Posted by: Joe Mama | Feb 11, 2008 9:02:40 AM
I just saw Blue Thunder the other night. Even in a formulaic action thriller, Scheider made a role pop. I saw him in a recent Law & Order episode and his presence dominated the screen.
Posted by: Angrier and Angrier | Feb 11, 2008 9:23:14 AM
Slow ahead. I can go slow ahead. Come down here and chum some of this shit.
Posted by: Marty West | Feb 11, 2008 11:26:09 AM
Can someone offer a real quick explanation of what happened between seasons such that Seaquest DSV became Seaquest 2030 or something like that with Michael Ironside ?
Posted by: 4-7 | Feb 11, 2008 12:14:31 PM
4-7,
If memory serves, the seaQuest was taken by aliens to their home planet to help them fight a war against invaders or something (yes, thats right, they had advanced technology such that they could travel across the galaxy, but they needed a submarine on their primarily water planet, because apparently they were too dumb to develop their own technology? yeah it had jumped the shark by then).
Jump forward about 20 or so years and the alien war is apparently over and the seaQuest gets left in the middle of a corn field in Iowa or something. The crew hasn't aged and Bridger wants to retire, but while the seaQuest was gone the political structure of earth really destabilized and you ended up with more lawlessness and pirateness etc. Now the seaQuest has a new, more military commander and they are trying to bring back the law and stability, because yes, in 20 years apparently the seaQuest is still the most advanced ship on Earth.
What can I say, aliens, humans, we all apparently suck at building good submarines.
Posted by: David K. | Feb 11, 2008 12:52:51 PM
"Can someone offer a real quick explanation of what happened between seasons such that Seaquest DSV became Seaquest 2030 or something like that with Michael Ironside ?"
Or, to paraphrase David K - Shitty ratings and a disastrous re-tooling that made the show completely nonsensical.
My fondest memory of the show was that chick who had been on Superboy using the Bow-Flex. That and the kid who killed himself wearing the Florida Marlins World Series hat for 2010 or whatever, totally underestimating that the Marlins would win the World Series just a few years after the show was on the air.
Posted by: Angrier and Angrier | Feb 11, 2008 1:04:52 PM
Roy was so much better in Jaws than on Seaquest!!! Expand your universe.
The only thing missing from Seaquest in year 3 was transporters. Geez.
Posted by: | Feb 11, 2008 2:35:39 PM
Who said anything about him being better in seaQuest than in Jaws?
Posted by: David K. | Feb 11, 2008 2:42:20 PM
My lord, Davie, you are a bigger geek than Dwight Schrute!! :)
Posted by: Wobbly H | Feb 11, 2008 4:30:11 PM
Eh, thats no surprise to anyone who knows me. I used to watch all the star trek stuff too, not really much anymore, but I enjoyed seaQuest when it was on, at the beggining atleast. Then you had season two (seaQuest 90210) and season three (seaQuest Voyager) and yeah it pretty much sucked. But Darwin was always great!
Posted by: David K. | Feb 11, 2008 4:36:23 PM