First victim of the shark in "Jaws" has died...
Susan Backlinie, the First Victim of the Shark in ‘Jaws,' Dies at 77
Story by Mike Barnes • 6h • 4 min read
Susan Backlinie, the stuntperson and actress who as a young skinny-dipper out for a nighttime swim off the coast of Amity Island became the shark's first victim in Steven Spielberg's Jaws, has died. She was 77.
Backlinie died Saturday at her home in Ventura, California, her convention agent, Matthew Templeton, told The Daily Jaws website.
Backlinie was a nationally ranked swimmer and professional diver who had performed as a mermaid and worked as an animal trainer when she was hired at age 28 to play the skinny-dipping Chrissie in Universal's Jaws (1975).
"I didn't want an actor to do it. I wanted a stuntperson because I needed somebody who was great in the water, who knew water ballet and knew how to endure what I imagined was going to be a whole lot of violent shaking," Spielberg said in Laurent Bouzereau's 2023 book, Spielberg: The First Ten Years. "So, I went to stunts to find her, and Susan was up to the challenge."
"The first thing [Spielberg] said to me was, ‘When your scene is done, I want everyone under the seats with the popcorn and bubblegum,'" Backlinie told The Palm Beach Post in a 2017 interview.
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Rest in peace, Susan. 