Jaws is a 1975 horror–thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel of the same name, which was inspired in turn by the Jersey Shore Shark Attacks of 1916. The film stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, Richard Dreyfuss as marine biologist Matt Hooper, Robert Shaw as the shark hunter Quint, Lorraine Gary as Brody's wife Ellen, and Murray Hamilton as the venal Mayor Vaughn. Jaws is regarded as a watershed film in motion picture history, the father of the summer blockbuster movie.
