MovieChat Forums > Jaws (1975) Discussion > Linda Harrison as Ellen Brody

Linda Harrison as Ellen Brody

posted 3 years ago by bozo_500 (13105)
8 replies | jump to latest

From LH wiki

In 1974, after a sabbatical of several years, Harrison attempted to return to her career. She desperately wanted the role of Roy Scheider's wife in Jaws, and urged her husband to give it to her. Zanuck asked director Steven Spielberg if he would consider Harrison, but Spielberg preferred actress Lorraine Gary, whom he had seen in a TV movie, The Marcus Nelson Murders, and cast her instead of Harrison "because she was right for the part."[33][34] Harrison was upset over Spielberg's preference for Gary, feeling that her husband should have gotten her the part. "I really wanted Dick to go to bat for me this one time." As a consolation, Universal chief Sid Sheinberg, Lorraine Gary's husband, got Harrison a part in Airport 1975 as Gloria Swanson's personal assistant, Winnie.[35] Though the movie starred Harrison's long-time idol, Charlton Heston, Harrison had no scenes with him, and "would have much rather had Jaws on my resume."[36] Years later, in an April 2012 interview, Harrison offered a reason she had lost the role because "They said Roy Scheider couldn't get a girl as beautiful as me."

So Roy missed out on Nova playing his wife..

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Harrison offered a reason she had lost the role because "They said Roy Scheider couldn't get a girl as beautiful as me."

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That's a nifty way to explain it and save (beautiful) face. I think Scheider (perhaps in another storyline) could have justified getting that beautiful girl.

Funny, though: Lorraine Gary better "fit" Scheider as a realistic, slightly aging beauty(with such a worried face much of the time) but -- she was the wife of someone even bigger than the producer: she was the wife of Sid Sheinberg, the Second in Command at Universal (after Lew Wasserman.)

Truly a great deal for young Spielberg working on a tough project -- hire the studio boss's wife for "insurance" -- BUT she was a perfect fit for the role.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (17735) 2 years ago

It's too bad about Harrison, but it did work for the better. There was something more naturalistic about Lorraine Gary.

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

It wasn't an important role, less important than in the book, but yeah - Lorraine Gary was right for it. Good-looking, good-natured woman, who isn't out of the league of a sort-of-handsome and moderately successful cop, and who doesn't seem out of place in a film that's filled with real faces and not Hollywood glamour.

Linda Harrison was really beautiful!

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-ydriczk/images/stencil/1920w/products/59023/58845/ss3158714_-_photograph_of_linda_harrison_available_in_4_sizes_framed_or_unframed_buy_now_at_starstills__49412__30423.1394494363.jpg?c=2

Or at least, she had been ten years before "Jaws" was made, judging by the hairstyle in the picture.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

It wasn't an important role, less important than in the book,

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Kind of a good thing that they cut down the role from the book -- in which the wife rapidly (and graphically) cheats on her police Chief husband with a more Studly version of Hooper(think, Jeff Bridges.) The characters in the book are simply a detestable group of people -- and Quint is more of a cipher.

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but yeah - Lorraine Gary was right for it. Good-looking, good-natured woman, who isn't out of the league of a sort-of-handsome and moderately successful cop, and who doesn't seem out of place in a film that's filled with real faces and not Hollywood glamour.

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All agreed. Spielberg was in good shape here making his decision-- Gary WAS married to a studio boss, but had proved herself in some TV movie roles and DID fit the character. She rather "fit" Scheider in a New York Jewish sort of way(noteable in their transplantation to Old WASP Amity), in her sinewy fitness, and in her emotion.

I've always liked how "Part One" of Jaws effectively ends with the emotionally involving shot of "Mrs. Brody" running away from the boat after kissing her husband goodbye -- she KNOWS he may not come back, she KNOWS he's at the mercy of the crazy Quint...she literally runs out of the movie and takes all the wifely support out with her. (Its like how in Vertigo at the 2/3 point, the plucky and grounded girlfriend Midge dejectedly leaves the movie and James Stewart is left alone with his mad new romantic obsession.)

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Linda Harrison was really beautiful!

https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-ydriczk/images/stencil/1920w/products/59023/58845/ss3158714_-_photograph_of_linda_harrison_available_in_4_sizes_framed_or_unframed_buy_now_at_starstills__49412__30423.1394494363.jpg?c=2

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Oh, yes...she WAS!

Richard Zanuck was a studio boss whose father, Darryl F. Zanuck had run the same studio and was a notorious womanizer who put a few of his beautiful girlfriends his movies (Irina Demick in The Longest Day, for instance). I assume Zanuck JR was a womanizer, too, but he also elected to marry at least two beauties in his life. Linda Harrison and then eventually "Lili" something, who co-produced movies with him. Zanuck was loyal to his wives. Business wise.

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Or at least, she had been ten years before "Jaws" was made, judging by the hairstyle in the picture.

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Linda Harrison was famous in the late sixties for two things: Planet of the Apes(riding around on that horse with Chuck Heston, and clearly the woman he could make babies with) and a TV series called "Bracken's World," about a movie studio and I think done by her husband's studio. Studio boss Bracken was to be played by Spencer Tracy, but he died, so we never SAW Bracken.

Richard Zanuck cast an older but still beautiful Linda Harrison in "Cocoon" (1985) years after their divorce. I think they shared children.

All that said, no, she was too beautiful for Mrs. Brody in Jaws...at least in the realistic Jaws that was made. Charlton Heston wanted the Chief Brody role, btw....it could have been a real reunion...

[–] Gubbio (3893) 3 years ago

Lorraine Gary was right for it. Good-looking, good-natured woman, who isn't out of the league of a sort-of-handsome and moderately successful cop...

I always thought Lorraine Gary was very attractive in "Jaws."

OK, I'll give her that she's 84 years old now... But, was the Botox necessary? She looks like "Carrot Top!"

https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/images/lorraine-gary-2.jpg

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Well, we all age...but yeah, red is a dangerous color to pick for older hair.

...I think husband Sid Sheinberg died recently, and that she was married to him til the end. I could be wrong about some or all of that; in any event, she was well taken care of.

Lorraine Gary got a Pyhrric victory with "Jaws IV" -- second billing to Michael Caine in a sequel that thoroughly trashed any of the greatness of the original Jaws while bespoiling the original further by showing us a 'familiar face." Gary is actually the lead, not Caine.

Steven Spielberg has noted that the low quality of the Jaws sequels reflected the fact that he did not personally own the rights -- he had no power at the time. He DOES have the rights to Indy Jones and Jurassic Park so those sequels are somewhat better.

PS. Hi, Gubbio!

[–] Otter (24464) 3 years ago

In 1975 Linda Harrison was (officially) 30 years old, and a knockout! And Roy Scheider was officially 43 and looked older.

If you saw those two living as a married couple in a backwater town, the audience would read them as a bit of a mismatch, they'd look at the wife and think she could do better than Brody (like a movie studio head!). Which would have been the way to go if they'd followed the book and had her having a fling with the wealthy and handsome book-Hooper, but Spielberg was wise. He changed Hooper from a douchey Preppie to a shark nerd, and Mrs. Hooper into a loyal wife who loved her husband and made the best of their change of circumstances. Gary was a good choice for the role of the loyal wife, closer to Scheider's age and New Yorky enough. They read as a couple who'd been through a lot together, which worked.

Here's Harrison with her real-life studio head, in what look like late 1970s fashions. Put her in a podunk town, and there would be a parade of straight men following her everywhere, because she might change her mind about Brody, and they had nothing better to do.

http://t.np.is/picid-1685011_b19_almant-st-1_a_0001112a_sz1000.jpeg