From our Coast to the big screen 🎬✨ Before battling the great white in Jaws, Roy Scheider honed his craft right here at Little Theatre on the Bay in North Bend. His journey from our local stage to Hollywood is a reminder that big dreams often start in small towns. 🦈💙 #LTOB #LibertyTheatreNorthBend #CommunityTheatre #OregonCoastLiving


This year, as many people celebrate the 50th anniversary of the hit Steven Spielberg movie “Jaws,” we are proud to remind everyone that its star, Roy Scheider, got his start at Little Theatre on the Bay.

In the mid-1950s, Scheider, who was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, worked at a radar station in Hauser. He’d done a little theatre in college, and once he learned about LTOB, he spent most of his spare time working at the theatre – building sets, acting, directing, whatever he could do to feed his artistic passion. In 1957, he even earned an LTOB Masque Award. In an interview with The World newspaper, Scheider said, “It’s been a blessing to me. I don’t know what I would have done here without the Little Theater.”

When his Air Force service ended, Scheider, headed to the Big Apple to become a star. He performed with the New York Shakespeare Festival and landed iconic roles in films like “The French Connection,” “All That Jazz,” “The Rainmaker,” - and, of course, Police Chief Martin Brody in “Jaws.”

Scheider passed away in 2008 – but the useful experience of acting (“Playing various roles, I’ve gotten insights into personalities I might never have been able to understand or sympathize with,” he told The World) lives on. So does the thrill of live theatre – where both audiences and actors participate, creating something no movie or television screen can replicate, as Scheider was quick to point out. And while Scheider was worried LTOB was would soon fail because of television and other modern distractions, he’d be pleased to learn that Little Theatre on the Bay is still going strong – and has even established a permanent home in a historic theatre they fully restored: The Liberty Theatre in North Bend.

Photo courtesy of MovieStillsDB.

#LTOB #LibertyTheatreNorthBend #CommunityTheatre #NorthBendMainStreet #OregonCoastLiving #WhatsHappeningCoos

News Source : https://www.facebook.com/800812012091502/posts/1229604779212221