Earlier this week it was announced that actor Roy Scheider died Sunday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital in Little Rock. The hospital did not release the cause of death, though it is known that Scheider had been treated for multiple myeloma for the past two years. He was 75.

Scheider was born in a working class New Jersey family in 1932. Following three years in the Air Force, in 1960 he went to New York to become an actor. His debut was playing Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, and minor roles in Paper Lion and Stiletto, then his breakthrough performance came in 1971 starring with Jane Fonda in Klute. 

Over the course of his career, Scheider was nominated for two Academy Awards. The first was for best supporting actor in 1971’s The French Connection, in which he played a police officer, partnered with Oscar winner Gene Hackman. The second was a best actor nomination for his performance in 1979’s All That Jazz, a semi-autobiographical Bob Fosse film. 

He was best known for playing small town police chief Martin Brody in 1975’s Jaws, a movie that had more than a few people hesitant to visit their favorite vacation spot. Jaws was the first movie to earn $100 million at the box office and is known as the film that began the era of the Hollywood blockbuster. In 2005, the movie’s most famous line, delivered by Scheider, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” was voted number 35 on the American Film Institute’s list of best U.S. movie quotes.

Scheider was also in Marathon Man with Dustin Hoffman, David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Naked Lunch, Jaws 2, and played an insurance company CEO in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Rainmaker. He had just completed Dark Honeymoon and Iron Cross, due out later this year. His television roles included stints on SeaQuest DSV and Third Watch.

“I’ve been fortunate to do what I consider three landmark films,” Scheider told The Associated Press in 1986, “The French Connection spawned a whole era of the relationship between two policemen…Jaws was the first big, blockbuster outdoor-adventure film. And certainly All That Jazz is not like any old MGM musical. Each one of these films is unique, and I consider myself fortunate to be associated with them.” His legacy in those and more films will live on.