Robert Archibald Shaw (9 August 1927 – 28 August 1978) was an English actor and novelist. With his menacing mutter and intimidating demeanor, he was often cast as a villain. He is best remembered for his performances in From Russia with Love (1963), A Man for All Seasons (1966), The Sting (1973), the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), Black Sunday (1977), Force 10 from Navarone (1978), The Deep (1977) and Jaws (1975), in which he played the shark hunter Quint.
[on working underground in the subway tunnels for The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)] I found myself in Dante's Inferno. It was the middle of winter and the freezing weather and dirty conditions took its toll on my mental and physical state.
2
I'm the happiest I've been in a long time. I have my new marriage. I have my new baby, my tenth child. I don't have to work in third-rate movies anymore, and I'm in great physical shape. (1977)
3
I still don't think of myself as a star. Success lasts only three seconds. After that you're the same as you were before you had it. I'm not a true artist anyway because I refuse to shrug off my family. To support them I must work in commercial films. My taxes alone keep eight lawyers busy, and when I finally get my money, it's only one-third of what I earn. With the kids in school and my other responsibilities, I get no change back from the first million dollars. The money flows out like water.
4
Acting is instant enjoyment and childlike. As an actor, Lord God, I can take an audience in a theatre and throw them in any direction. I can't do that as a writer. Writing is painful, it's lonely and you suffer and there's no immediate feedback.
5
Being 50 years old and having 10 children... the youngest is thirteen months (as of March 1978)... creates the economic necessity that forces me into all those big budget movies in which I often don't have a single realistic line.
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Writing is where the real center of my integrity lies. I never write for money. I only act for money, but not invariably of course. I would never write certain sentences that I say in films, or even that I write in films, because I often fix up my lines.
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What I try to achieve in acting - flamboyance - would be self-indulgence if I tried it as a writer.
8
To Nick Nolte, when the two were discussing how badly their film, The Deep (1977) was going: "It's a treasure picture Nick, it's a treasure picture."
9
I drink too much. Will you tell me one great actor who doesn't drink?
He was made to wear lifts when filming 'From Russia with Love (1963) to appear physical threatening to Sean Connery. Connery was about 4 inches taller than Shaw. He also dyed his hair blonde.
3
In the novel The Taking of Pelham 123, one of the characters liked to walk off nervous energy, and Shaw played the villain in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974); Shaw tried to walk off chest pains and wound up dying of a heart attack.
He's also a writer having written the play, Off the Mainland, which had a West End run and Retreat.
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After his TV role in The Buccaneers (1956), he changed track and joined the London Old Vic Company playing in many Shakespearean dramas which then took him to the Shakespeare Memorial theatre at Stratford.
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A keen sportsman, he played rugby for London Wasps. In 1957, his school quarter mile record still stood. He was an expert swordsman and a squash enthusiast.
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He is one of three actors to have been Oscar-nominated for playing King Henry VIII of England. The other two are Charles Laughton and Richard Burton, but Laughton is the only one of the three to have won (in 1933).
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His performance as Captain Quint in Jaws (1975) is ranked #28 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
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Was nominated for Broadway's 1969 Tony Award as author of best play nominee The Man in the Glass Booth.
Is the uncle of author, actor, and filmmaker Scott Shaw.
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In the town of Westhoughton in England, there is a pub called The Robert Shaw.
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Many of Captain Quint's ramblings in Jaws (1975) were actually Shaw's improvisations, and he is considered one of many authors of the famous USS Indianapolis scene.
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Shaw twice played a villain opposite a hero played by Sean Connery. The first was that of SPECTRE killer Donald Grant in From Russia with Love (1963) opposite Connery as secret agent James Bond 007. The second was the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin and Marian (1976) opposite Connery as aging forest archer Robin Hood.
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Parents were Thomas and Doreen Shaw. He had three sisters and one brother.
$9 Million
