Seventies iconic actor and probably one of the most under rated stars of a generation, Roy Scheider has died at the age of 75 in hospital at Little Rock, Arkansas. He had been battling a particular form of plasma cell cancer for a long time.

He will be best known for his heroic characters in the first two Jaws films in the 1970's and had been nominated for two Oscars in his time. These particular moments were for his supporting role in The French Connection which starred Gene Hackman and also for best actor for the 1979 hit, All That Jazz.

Fellow actor and co star in the first Jaws film, Richard Dreyfuss spoke fondly of his colleague and friend. He said,

"He was a wonderful guy. He was what I call a knockaround actor. A knockaround actor to me is a compliment that means a professional that lives the life of a professional actor and doesn't yell and scream at the fates and does his job and does it as well as he can."

Jaws opened up the flood gates with regard to cinematic, acceptable "horror." The fear of the killer shark was perhaps mostly in the mind of the audience, as a decent full shot of the beast was avoided to add more of a thrill to the movie. It was, also the very first film to gross over $100m at the box office.

The US actors other film roles where in Klute, Marathon Man and Sorcerer.

He made a come back in TV nearly 20 years ago when he ventured to the water yet again in the adventure hit series, SeaQuest DSV.

However, no one can ever forget that scene in Jaws where Roy comes face to face with the killer shark. We have always wanted to know what it was he either saw or was thinking about to get that look on his face...

I guess we will never know....