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Susan Backlinie

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Susan Backlinie
Backlinie in 2023
Born
Susan Jane Myers

(1946-09-01)September 1, 1946
Miami, Florida, U.S
DiedMay 11, 2024(2024-05-11) (aged 77)
Ventura, California, U.S.
Occupations
  • Actress
  • stuntwoman
Years active1973–1982
Notable workChristine "Chrissie" Watkins in Jaws (1975)
Spouses
Henry Backlinie
​
(m. 1966)​
[1]
Harvey Swindall
​
(m. 1995)​
[1]
Children1

Susan Jane Backlinie (September 1, 1946 – May 11, 2024) was an American actress and stuntwoman. She was known for playing Chrissie Watkins, the shark attack victim in the opening scene of Steven Spielberg's 1975 film Jaws.[2][3][4]

Early life

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Susan Jane Myers was born in Miami on September 1, 1946; some sources say she was a native of Washington, D.C.[1][5][6] From the age of ten, Backlinie lived in West Palm Beach, Florida, where she swam for miles off the coast and in local pools.[7] At Forest Hill High School, she was a cheerleader and a state freestyle swimming champion; she graduated in 1964.[7][1] After high school she attended nursing school for a year, but she wanted a more adventurous outdoor life.[5] As a teenager she performed as a mermaid at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, a tourist attraction on Florida's west coast; later she worked with wild animals at Ivan Tors Studios, the Miami facility made famous by Flipper.[5] On a national tour with Ivan, she shared a stage with Gentle Ben the bear, Judy the Chimp, and Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion.[1][5] When Ivan Tors closed, Backlinie now in her early 20s, relocated to Africa USA, an animal theme park in Redwood City, California.[5][8]

Career

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Clarence the Lion, and Judy the Chimp, who Backlinie worked with as a trainer in the early 1970s.

In the early 1970s when she was 23-years old, Backlinie was working at Africa USA, riding on the back of a 300 lb water-skiing lion named Zamba (also an animal actor).[1][9] This led to a topless pictorial, "The Lady and the Lion", in the January 1973 issue of Penthouse, including with Zamba.[1][9] She also appeared nude in the February 1977 issue of Mayfair.[1][10] As a stuntwoman, she played a dead prostitute floating down the river in The Blue Knight (1973), and was seen in a falling elevator in The Towering Inferno (1974).[1]

In 1974, she was working as an extra for a casting agency when a request came in for someone who was willing to work in the nude and who was a good swimmer in the ocean.[1] Backlinie submitted a nude photo of herself and she was brought to the attention of director Steven Spielberg. Backlinie pitched her beauty, "If you use me, you could get close-ups during the stunt itself. If you use an actress, she’ll have to hide her face."[5] She was hired, and Backlinie's scene in Jaws took three days to shoot.[11] Attached to her cut-off jeans were metal plates that anchored ropes pulled by groups of men in opposite directions, giving the appearance of being dragged by an unseen force underwater.[1][5][12] Other than flippers to help her, she stayed afloat only by the strength of her swimming.[5] Spielberg calls Backlinie's sequence "one of the most dangerous" stunts he's ever directed: “She was actually being tugged left and right by 10 men on one rope and 10 men on the other back to the shore, and that's what caused her to move like that."[5] Her screams were recorded later in the studio, she recounted that "Spielberg sat me in a chair … and he poured water down my throat."[1] When Jaws co-star Richard Dreyfuss saw a daily of her performance, he told her it absolutely terrified him.[5] The iconic scene opens the film.[7] Although the movie poster shows the character of Chrissie, Susan is not the one depicted, the painting was originally the book cover art by Roger Kastel who hired a 24-year-old model named Allison Maher.[1]

Backlinie was in the 1977 film Day of the Animals, regarded by some as a Jaws clone about nature gone bad.[13] She was in Spielberg's 1979 film 1941 parodying her role in Jaws:[3] instead of being attacked by a shark during a midnight swim, she is "picked up" by the periscope of a Japanese submarine.[14] The scene has been described as the best joke in what is otherwise widely considered one of Spielberg's least successful films.[15] She danced a water ballet with Miss Piggy in The Great Muppet Caper (1981).[1]

Personal life and death

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She was married twice, first in 1966 to Henry Backlinie a ranch foreman, and again in 1996 to Harvey Swindall.[1] She had a daughter.[1] Later in life she was a computer accountant. She was a popular presence at "JawsFest" events, and enjoyed scuba diving, including on the coast of Australia where she fearlessly swam with sharks.[1][5]

She died from a heart attack at her home in Ventura, California, on May 11, 2024, at the age of 77.[16][17][7]

Filmography

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Film
Year Film Role Notes
1975 Jaws Chrissie Watkins [18]
The Grizzly and the Treasure Eve [18]
1976 A Stranger in My Forest Susan also Trainer[18]
Two-Minute Warning Pretty blonde woman in crowd Uncredited[6]
1977 Day of the Animals Mandy Young [18]
1979 The Villain n/a Stunt performer[19]
1941 Polar Bear Woman [18]
1981 Image of the Beast n/a Stunt performer[19]
The Great Muppet Caper Charkie's Water Ballet Performer [18]
1984 Terror in the Aisles Chrissie Watkins Archival footage[20]
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1976 The Quest Girl in Brawl 1 episode[18]
1977 The Return of the Incredible Hulk n/a TV film
Animal Trainer[21]
1978 Quark Guard #1 2 episodes[18]
1982 Catalina C-Lab Diver With Bends TV film[21]
The Fall Guy Tammy 1 episode[18]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Susan Backlinie, stuntwoman and actress immortalised as the shark's first victim in Jaws". The Daily Telegraph. May 14, 2024. Archived from the original on May 14, 2024. Retrieved May 14, 2024.
  2. ^ "Susan Backlinie Biography". IMDb. Retrieved November 29, 2013.
  3. ^ a b Russo, Tom (August 4, 2012). "'Jaws': Shark tale still has plenty of bite". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
  4. ^ Slor, Zhanna (September 7, 2023). "'Jaws' Actress Susan Backlinie Says She Felt Like 'Shark Bait' Filming Iconic Scene". ReMIND Magazine. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Sturrock, Staci (June 20, 2015). "'Jaws' first victim: She went to Forest Hill High!". The Palm Beach Post. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
  6. ^ a b Tonguette, Peter (May 16, 2024). "Susan Backlinie, 1946-2024". Washington Examiner. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d Diaz, Johnny (May 12, 2024). "Susan Backlinie, Swimmer Who Was First Victim in 'Jaws,' Dies at 77". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 12, 2024. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
  8. ^ Hussey, Megan (July 14, 2022). "Jaw's first victim was a Weeki Wachee mermaid". Hernando Sun. Retrieved May 13, 2024.
  9. ^ a b Nelson, Ralph; Backlinie, Susan (January 1973). "The Lady and the Lion". Penthouse. Vol. 4, no. 5. pp. 80–85.
  10. ^ "Susan Backlinie – The nude from Jaws". Mayfair. Vol. 12, no. 2. February 1977. pp. 40–43.
  11. ^ Andrews, Nigel (1999). Nigel Andrews on Jaws: A Bloomsbury Movie Guide. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 45. ISBN 978-1582340425.
  12. ^ Osborne, Hannah (May 31, 2015). "Jaws 40th Anniversary: 40 facts about Spielberg's infamous shark movie and Great Whites". International Business Times. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
  13. ^ Gambin, Lee (March 4, 2018). "Feeling the Fury of Mother Nature: Andrew Stevens Remembers Day of the Animals (1977)". Diabolique Magazine. Retrieved May 17, 2018.
  14. ^ Fischer, Dennis (2000). Science Fiction Film Directors, 1895–1998. McFarland & Company. p. 557. ISBN 978-0786460915.
  15. ^ Brode, Douglas (2000). The Films of Steven Spielberg. Citadel Press. pp. 84–86. ISBN 978-0806519517.
  16. ^ "Susan Backlinie of Jaws fame passes away aged 77". The Daily Jaws. May 11, 2024. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  17. ^ Barnes, Mike (May 12, 2024). "Susan Backlinie, the First Victim of the Shark in 'Jaws,' Dies at 77". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kuznikov, Selena (May 12, 2024). "Susan Backlinie, Who Played the First Shark Attack Victim in 'Jaws,' Dies at 77". Variety. Retrieved April 1, 2024.
  19. ^ a b Segarra, Edward (May 12, 2024). "Susan Backlinie, who played shark victim Chrissie Watkins in 'Jaws,' dies at 77: Reports". USA Today. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
  20. ^ "Terror in the Aisles Press Kit". Universal Studios. 1984. Archived from the original on May 18, 2024. Retrieved May 16, 2024 – via Ebay.
  21. ^ a b "Susan Backlinie: Credits". IMDB. Retrieved May 12, 2024.
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