Roy Scheider was best known, of course, for his intense movie roles (“Jaws,” “All that Jazz”).
But the actor, who died over the weekend, also gets his tube props, most notably starring in the 1993-95 NBC sci-fi series “Seaquest DSV,” whose executive producers included Steven Spielberg.
The show was clearly Spielberg’s homage to that mid-‘60s underwater classic, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” a fact not lost on many critics who knocked “Seaquest” with such barbs as “Voyage to the Bottom of the Ratings.”
Scheider played Capt. Nathan Hale Bridger, who commanded (and designed) the 1,000-foot long seaQuest, a Deep Submergence Vehicle. (Hence the show’s title.) The show took place 25 years in the future -- that's just 10 years from now! -- when above-water folks had begun to colonize the expanses beneath the sea.
Scheider’s show-biz career actually began on TV, way back in 1956 with a role on the soap “Edge of Night.” And viewers with shortter memories may recall his 2002 recurring role on “Third Watch” as Russian mob boss Fyodor Chevchenko.
Do you remember "seaQuest?" Share your thoughts here.
(NBC photo: Scheider goin' deep on "seaQuest.")