Judging from the number of repitions here on TV, the most popular Roy Scheider movie in Germany is "Blue Thunder". The role of the broken hero, who manages to raise a surprising amount of energy and determination when the going get's tough, was typical for Scheider. He really was a perfect cast. I also liked him in "52 Pickup", a thriller that is seriously underrated at imdb, imho.
Thx for providing us with your personal moment with Scheider, LM! This gives us a glimpse at the man behind the actor. A great guy! Not forgotten.
My Roy Zen Moment? He came to see a play that I was IN. 93-seat theatre, everyone plainly visible from stage. We were all a wreck.
He was great. Lived in our neighborhood for a few years.
That story is really cool. He didn't have to do that, he didn't know you from Adam, and he was sensitive enough to catch your reaction. RIP.
daaaaaaaammmmmmmmmnnn... fantastic car chase -- and NO explosions!!
Wow, what a chase. Amusing are the "WTF"
expresions on the kids. Thanks LM
Classic cars, too. Great suspensions, terrific handling- no wonder Detroit is going out of business. 
LM- Thanks for sharing the memory and making Roy more personal.
The Seven-Ups out-dreads the modern takes like The Departed. Tho it's not a well-regarded remake, I also loved "Sorcerer" for its 70's gritty style.
The 7-ups should have been the star vehicle for Scheider. It was great, I wonder why it didnt happen for him.
here he is with Popeye: http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/
dynam...7__french_l.jpg
I loved Scheider in "All That Jazz" - gonna have to check out his other classics now, too.
Thanks for the reminiscence, LM.
And that is one AWESOME chase scene!
Just one thing: How the HELL does one go from the GWB to the *Taconic* - I thought all routes lead to the PIP??
HS he had too much ability for a star vehical 
he could paly to wide of a role and could actualy act as opposed to being the lates hartthrob...happens all the time to good actors...the yare more important to fill in the vital supporting roles, can't waste them in the lead.
"It's showtime!"
“Just one thing: How the HELL does one go from the GWB to the *Taconic* - I thought all routes lead to the PIP??”
As per usual, they chopped up the map for the chase as many movie chases do. The two Pontiacs (The villain's monster Grand Ville—driven by the “Bullitt” driver Bill Hickman and Scheider's obviously souped up Ventura) cross into Jersey over the GWB, dip onto the Palisades —which joins Jersey and NY as it's an interstate parkway) near Englewood and up towards Bear Mountain, past there to Harriman and then hopscotch down to the Taconic. It's a physically impossible move to make in the time frame and with all the curving around and interchanges involved.
In other words, they fudged it and took “artistic” liberties.
They even put buses on the Taconic for the chase which was illegal in actuality. The road was meant for Sunday Driving “Robert Moses Style”, but for the movie they stuck a bus on it to give the bad guys something to hide behind. (They finally relaxed those rules about ten years ago letting people with recreational pick-ups drive on it)
The only other people I know who've noticed the glitches are folks who were kids and rode those roads regularly to Bear Mountain, Mad Anthony Wayne and Harriman State parks and a family friend who's a limo driver.
Still, it's a helluva damn drive, ain't it?
Roy was dedicated to his community
http://hamptons.plumtv.com/
stori...eider_1932_2008
Great story, LM, I can see why it made an impression on you--and us. Thanks for sharing it and RIP Roy.
i saw all that jazz a mere six years after experiencing the full force9 experience of working a fosse show. (in the pit orchestra but there is no place in the theatre beyond the reach and impact of fosse). there were things scheider did in that film that were exactly fosse. he was better looking than fosse, but if i ever directed my autobiography i'm casting josh brolin so there. the things he got dead on, the wry, slow burns, the mecurical double takes, the self deprecation which was a mask for extreme arrogance, the maddening shallowness, all of it up on the screen just like it was all of it right there in your face with fosse. it was the only time i've ever seen a screen portrayal of someone i knew. it was dead the fuck on. you can't direct that shit. you can't coach that shit. you can't write that shit. you can only observe it and give it back.
LM-
I *thought* so - "Briarcliff Manor" is on the *other* side of the River. -That first part past the Park and toward the WSH is often the route we take back from our City jaunts, btw.
And, yes, it's a helluva drive!
I thought that you did a very good post about Roy Scheider.
From your story, it seems he was a person of character...and that's a lot.
What, no love for the chase scene in Ronin? Although, watching them one after the other, I can see similarities.
Indiana Joe:
I have a deep penchant for great car chase scenes, and yes, I must say that the one in “Ronin” is the best one I've seen in the last 25 years.
But that may have something to do with its director, the late, great, John Frankenheimer who is one of my directing idols.
The frantic pacing, close quarters and yes, the seeming taxing toll that hard driving, tension and all those impacts takes on the participants make that one work—along with Bullitt, French Connection and Seven-Ups.
All three of those movies were produced by Philip D'Antoni, who I guess as well as being the arguable king of the “gritty, post-noir cop thriller” is pretty much the king of the movie car-chase.
Thanks for the story LM.
As long as we're talking (and ranking) car-chases, I'd be interested to hear what you all thought about "Death Proof," the Tarantino half of "Grindhouse."
For my money, it was at least in the top five...
he was my first on screen crush. enough said.
Great story, LM. Put a smile on my face this cold morning!
Scheider was always my guy, though I never knew him personally. Just liked how he worked, carried himself, seemed to be in real life. My guy, y'know? I rewatched Jaws last night in his honor, and I discovered all over again what a fantastic movie that is. The character moments, especially: drunken Brody quizzing rich-kid Hooper about his fancy boat, all the small-town-police wackiness, and of course the Indianapolis scene ("like a doll's eyes" always makes me shudder, just thinking about it).
They don't make movies like that anymore, I think. Maybe they don't make actors like that, either. R.I.P., Roy. You will be missed.
As a chicago guy I gotta put bluse brothers on the top...nothign elselives up to it...besides it was the only chase whose steps I could retrace as a drunken teenager...its als othe only chase where I can point out a friends house in teh background.
damm new sig attempt dosn't fit in teh name window
I recall enthusing about Scheider's performance in "All That Jazz," and the other kids (Florida, mind you) staring at me as if I was gay.
He was a great actor (and he did a great job with what he had to work with on Seaquest).
What a great story, LM. Funny how a man can reveal so much of himself in such a simple act.
Like I said over at Chez Driftglass, the fact that Roy's career survived his debut in a cheap-ass (was there any other kind?) Del Tenney horror flick is pretty damn miraculous in itself.
(For those of you who are blessedly bereft of the bizarre mental quirks that turn otherwise sane people into bad cinema aficionados, Del Tenney is mostly famous for having written and directed the gob-smackingly awful The Horror of Party Beach as well as a Grade Z voodoo horror flick gloriously titled I Eat Your Skin.)
Since he signed up with Tenney after these two classics had been unleashed upon the world, Roy surely had some idea what he was getting into. And he wasn't an extra or a supporting character in this one, either: He played the lead.
When I first saw The Curse of the Living Corpse on our local UHF station's late-late show back in the 80s, I just couldn't believe my eyes. Not that Roy didn't give it his best shot, within the obvious limitations of working under a hack writer/director with a nonexistent budget. But that just made it even more of a head-spinning WTF, like spotting a genuine Picasso in the middle of a motel art sale.
There's no disputing that this actor paid his dues. Who knows? Maybe having a TCotLC in his past helped keep him humble.
prof rate, OMG, I remember being 10 years old and seeing I Eat Your Skin as part of a triple showing. I don't remember what the main event was, but I want to say "I drink Your Blood" was another movie...
Roy Sheider was amazing in Jaws and All That Jazz. He was a class act.
Dammit, no one's mentioned the movie I loved him in, during the 90s: Dr. Benway, NAKED FREAKIN LUNCH.
He was just so weird, and just so right.
Hello,
My name is Randy Jones. I am the orignal Cowboy from Village People.
I've certainly enjoyed reading your account re: Roy Scheider. Indeed he was a terrific actor...perhaps to an even greater extent, he was really good guy. I had the occasion to appear at the same events along with him thur the years. Once I remember that he demonstrated his ability to surf all manner of whatever might be "thrown" his way was back in 1982 in Key West, FL. Roy was a resident there and along with me and several others, he was a celebrity judge for the city's annual FANTASY FEST mardi gras-type parade and costume celebration. To lead the kickoff costume parade down Duvall Street, the judges were each assigned horses that had been temporarily dyed different colors. When Roy and I arrived onscene, there were only two mounts left, one dyed blue and one dyed pink. Being the eternal gentleman that he embodied, he offered to toss a coin to decide who would have to ride the pink one. We decided to toss two shots of his favorite beverage before we tossed the coin, so it really wouldn't matter which color we ended up with. As luck would have it, Roy got the blue...and I got the pink. By the time we got to the judges stand and dismounted, both of had the horse's color all over our legs and butts. Down thru the years, each time we would run into each other at events, we have a drink and re-committ to NEVER gettin' up on a horse that was anything but naturally colored. Roy Scheider was immensely talented, a gentleman and greatly gifted as a human being. God bless him.
Randy Jones
www.RandyJonesWorld.com
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