1971: Roy Scheider breaks out in "Klute" and "The French Connection"

"Jaws" (1975) made leading men out of all three of its male leads -- Robert Shaw(who got some action movies and died young at 51), Richard Dreyfuss(who perhaps went the farthest -- winning a Best Actor Oscar for The Goodbye Girl and appearing in Close Encounters the same year), and Roy Scheider.

Scheider outlived Shaw, but couldn't quite keep his leading man career going. He hit big in All the Jazz(replacing, unbelievably, DREYFUSS as an athletic Broadway dance man based on Bob Fosse, who made the film) and held on a bit into the 80s with Blue Thunder and 52 Pick Up.

But before Jaws and everything that followed could happen, Scheider needed to "make his name" in movies, and in 1971, he did it:

He was in The French Connection, which won the Best Actor award for Gene Hackman.
He was in Klute, which won the Best Actress award for Jane Fonda.

So, two quality movies, two hits. The French Connection hit bigger than Klute, with a Best Picture win and a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nom for Roy Scheider -- sympathetic as the buddy movie partner to cop Gene Hackman in a movie that wasn't too buddy-buddy at all.

Both The French Connection and Klute were set in a gritty New York City, "underbelly up" -- though Klute had a bit more glamour given the upperclass world in which call girl Fonda moved.

Scheider's role in Klute was more dangerous to his career, perhaps than his hero cop in The French Connection. In Klute, Scheider is an upper-level "white pimp" working out of a nice apartment with a cover job -- but he is very much a villain, whose control of Fonda (as demonstrated to "nice guy cop" Donald Sutherland as Klute) is the usual "bad guy wins" sort of proposition.

Indeed, its hard to believe the slimy pimp played by Scheider in Klute being the same "regular guy" on the sea in Jaws...but...that's acting.

"French Connection" director William Friedkin gave Scheider the "American lead" in the international cast thriller "Sorcerer" which was a big flop after Friedkin's two hits(French Connection and The Exorcist.) Friedkin almost had Steve McQueen for the part, but lost him. Schieder's inability to play movie star at McQueen level probably cost him later. "All that Jazz" was a fluke -- Scheider replaced Dreyfuss.

Roy Scheider had a solid, long career until death. He went out as he came in -- a solid character man in support. With some leads in between.

But its fun to see him "making his debut"(after some other unknown movies) all in the same year, only a month or two apart in the fall, as I recall.

The cop in The French Connection. The pimp in Klute. A great launch until that great white shark could make him a star.