Susan Backlinie Passed Away: First Victim in ‘Jaws’ Shark Attack Dies at 77

The first victim of a shark attack in Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” film, Susan Backlinie, passed away. She was seventy-seven.

Owner of Convention All Stars Sean Clark confirmed Backlinie’s death to Channels on Saturday morning, stating that she suffered a heart attack at her California home. One of the company’s clientele was the former stuntwoman and actress.

Susan Backlinie Cause of Death:

Stunt performer Ms. Backlinie appeared in the horrifying opening sequence of the 1975 movie, which included an assault by a great white shark.

Susan Backlinie, an actress and stunt performer, passed away on Saturday. Her depiction of a brutal demise as the first victim of a shark attack in the opening sequence of the famous film “Jaws” horrified viewers. She was seventy-seven.

According to Ms. Backlinie’s agent, Sean Clark, she passed away at home in California on Sunday. She suffered a heart attack, he claimed.

Susan Backlinie Career:

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film “Jaws” is famous for a sequence in which Ms. Backlinie played Chrissie Watkins, a skinny dipper who sprints down the beach and jumps into the sea for a nocturnal swim.

Her abrupt submersion beneath the sea disrupts the serene tableau. She cries as a great white shark that isn’t there thrashes her mercilessly, and she makes a last-ditch effort to hang on to a ringing buoy before being dragged below the surface again.

The Daily Jaws website states that a harness restrained Ms. Backlinie during the scenario. According to The Palm Beach Post, Ms. Backlinie reportedly wore pants with metal plates sewn into the sides and fastened wires.

To evoke a more genuine sense of surprise from her, Susan was purposefully kept in the dark about when she would be immersed at first, connected to a rope that was anchored to the ocean floor underneath her to simulate being pushed through the water, according to The Daily Jaws.

“After your scene is done, I want somebody under chairs with the popcorn and bubble gum,” Ms. Backlinie said in a 2017 interview with The Post, recalling Spielberg’s words.

“I think we did that,” she stated.

The scene was called “one of the most dangerous” stunts by Mr. Spielberg in the documentary “Jaws: The Inside Story.”

He said she moved in that way because ten guys on one rope and ten men on the other were pulling her left and right back to the beach.

In the documentary, actor Richard Dreyfuss, who played oceanographer Matt Hooper in the film, described how Ms. Backlinie and Mr. Spielberg increased the intensity of the sequence by subsequently capturing her cries.

As she cried out, Mr. Spielberg “had her tilt her head back, and he poured water down her throat, which is now known as waterboarding,” according to Mr. Dreyfuss.

Working with Mr. Spielberg again, Ms. Backlinie parodied her “Jaws” persona by going for a late-night swim in the 1979 parody war drama “1941.” Instead of a shark, she saw the rising periscope of a Japanese submarine while the tense “Jaws” soundtrack played.

According to The Post, Ms. Backlinie began swimming in neighborhood pools and miles off the shore when she was ten. She resided in West Palm Beach, Florida. She was a state champion freestyle swimmer and a cheerleader in high school.

She later relocated to California after giving mermaid performances at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, a popular tourist destination on Florida’s west coast.

Who was Susan Backlinie?

Mr. Clark states that Ms. Backlinie, born on September 1, 1946, is survived by her husband, Harvey Swindall.

She kept doing movies after “Jaws,” making appearances in the horror film “Day of the Animals” (1977) and in Jim Henson’s “The Great Muppet Caper” (1981) as a water ballet performer. In 1982, she had an additional appearance in an episode of the stunt television series “The Fall Guy.”

However, she would be most known for the “Jaws” opening sequence.

In an interview with The Post, she described how movie convention attendees had confided in her about their dread of swimming due to that sequence.

You know you keeping me out of the water is one of the most often remarks people make to me, she added.