This JAWS 2 actor was originally cast as the son of Quint
Quint may have last been seen slipping into the belly of the great white shark in JAWS, but JAWS 2 was set to bring his son to Amity Island to avenge his father and no doubt collect his $10,000 reward.
The son of Quint had even been cast with Billy Van Zandt, who would eventually play Bob in the released film. Either way he looks great in a hat, although not sure Quint would approve of his life jacket wearing!
Van Zandt talked about his original casting in an exclusive interview with The Daily Jaws to mark 45 years since JAWS 2 surfaced in US cinemas.
He said: “In the John Hancock version I had a better role, I was supposed to be Robert Shaw’s son, and my nickname was ‘Sideburns’, so they had me grow sideburns and my first shot was me coming on the ferry from Chappaquiddick whistling the sea shanty that he sang in the first film.”
And years before Robert Shaw’s Quint sang ‘Farewell and Adieu to you Fair Spanish Ladies’ to Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) in JAWS, he was signing it as another sea-faring captain, this time as Captain Dan Tempest in the 1950’s TV series The Buccaneers.
Playing pirates was clearly something Shaw enjoyed as for his next film after JAWS he finally got his bigger boat in Scarlett Buccaneer (also known as Swashbuckler).
Quint, played by Robert Shaw, is one of cinema's most iconic characters, but astonishingly wasn't even Oscar-nominated for his dazzling performance as the salty shark obsessed fisherman.
That’s incredibly hard to imagine, just for his mesmerising USS Indianapolis speech scene alone.
And the long shadow cast by the character of Quint was clearly felt by the sequel filmmakers, as the original pitch for the follow up was a prequel, bringing the young Quint’s USS Indianapolis story to the screen.
Would you have liked to have seen Van Zandt as ‘Sideburns’, the son of Quint, the aborted Quint on the USS Indianapolis prequel, the darker John Hancock version of JAWS 2 or are you happy with the version that was released?
Words by Dean Newman
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