Robert Shaw Was Actually Drunk While Filming This Movie

From the first moment Robert Shaw appears in the 1975 film "Jaws," he steals the show. In the scene, his character, a gruff sea captain named Quint, rakes his nails down a chalkboard to get the attention of his fellow residents of an East Coast beach town being terrorized by a great white shark. But behind the scenes, the British-born actor's behavior added another level of chaos to an already tumult-filled film shoot on the set of "Jaws", which included their boat, the Orca, sinking three times, a malfunctioning animatronic shark, and director Steven Spielberg going over budget and past schedule.

Besides feuding with his fellow actor, Richard Dreyfuss, Shaw's overuse of alcohol also became an issue. Both of these problems seemed related to the tumultuous shoot that included an inordinate amount of downtime. When asked in a television interview in 1975 how he "psyched himself up" for a scene under these conditions, Shaw answered: "scotch, vodka, gin, whatever ... I do tend to drink when I'm totally bored" (via YouTube). In one pivotal scene in particular, in which Shaw has a long dramatic monologue, he was blackout drunk, requiring Spielberg to reshoot the scene the next day.

By the time Steven Spielberg cast Robert Shaw in "Jaws," the Shakespearean actor had already acquired a reputation for being a bit cantankerous and for his drinking. But he had earned an Academy Award nomination in 1967 for a supporting role in "A Man for All Seasons," and had been in two big hits, "From Russia with Love" and "The Sting." Still, he was cut from the same cloth as other British actors like Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole (who considered himself Irish), both of whom had famously also been drunk on screen. "Drink? Can you imagine being a movie star and having to take it seriously without a drink?" Shaw remarked in a 1977 People interview. "I agree with Richard Burton that drink gives poetry to life. Drink for actors is an occupational hazard born largely out of fear."

On the set of "Jaws," Richard Dreyfuss may have inadvertently kicked off the feud with Shaw. While they were filming at sea, Shaw mentioned that he wished he could give up drinking. Dreyfuss picked up Shaw's glass of whiskey and threw it out the porthole, apparently thinking he was being helpful. Dreyfuss believed Shaw, who tormented him for the rest of the production, never forgave him for tossing out his booze. The younger actor would later say that Shaw was "a man who intimidated me, who scared me, who exhilarated me, and I liked him and I hated him ..." (via YouTube).

Just before Steven Spielberg began to shoot a dramatic scene featuring a monologue by Robert Shaw's character, Shaw came to the director. "You know, Steven, all three of these characters have been drinking, and I think I could do a much better job in this speech if you let me actually have a few drinks before I do the speech," he told him (via Entertainment Weekly). Spielberg reluctantly agreed. Shaw apparently had a few too many, since two members of the film crew had to carry him onto the boat to shoot the scene that went so poorly the director stopped filming.

Early the next morning, Shaw apologized profusely and nailed the scene in which his character Quint describes the awful fate of the sailors on the U.S. Indianapolis who were killed by sharks after a Japanese submarine sank the ship during World War II. He did it in four takes and had actually rewritten the monologue somewhat — he was also a fiction writer and playwright — to create one of the most memorable scenes in "Jaws." Shaw got sober in 1977, but died of a sudden heart attack the next year at only 51.