Remembering Tom Joyner: First Assistant Director on JAWS (1975)

Hello, Islanders!

If you go to the cinema today you can expect to sit through at least 5 minutes of end credits, mentioning everyone who worked on the film, from the make up people to the caterer. And, if it’s not a film from the MCU, where you get a payoff when they drop a hint about the next adventure, they can be pretty boring.

However, this was not always the case.

In the early days of Hollywood, when a film was over, it was over. In the mid-1930’s, occasionally the name of the actors would fill the screen as the film ended. Universal films would always end with the title card “A Great Cast is Worth Repeating.” By the time JAWS was released, end credits were reserved only for those who made major contributions to the film. Excluding the cast, there are sixteen people named in the end credits of JAWS. Out of hundreds of people involved in the production, the studio felt only SIXTEEN deserved special recognition. One of those highlighted was First Assistant Director Tom Joyner. Joyner, who passed away earlier this year, would have celebrated his 80th birthday on December 7th.

After training as an uncredited assistant director on early films in the 1970s, Joyner got his first screen credit when he served as assistant director on the 1973 television film “Death Race.” That same year he filled the second assistant director position on Clint Eastwood’s Breezy.

He served as an AD on various television shows filmed at Universal and in 1974 was hired to be Second AD on Steven Spielberg’s Sugarland Express. Comfortable with Joyner’s work, the director took him along on his next project, JAWS, promoting him to the position of First Assistant Director.

Prior to the success of JAWS, Spielberg’s next film was slated to be The Bingo Long Traveling All-stars and Motor Kings and Joyner was once again assigned as the film’s First Assistant Director. However, after JAWS, Spielberg was flooded with offers and decided to make Close Encounters of the Third Kind for Columbia. As Joyner was already committed to Bingo, he had to turn down Spielberg’s offer to work on CE3K. He also served as AD on Slap Shot and reunited two more times with Eastwood: Bronco Billy and Any Which Way You Can.

In 1976 he was named Production Manager of Universal’s Two-Minute Warning. Now he was in charge of everything, making sure that the filming process went smoothly on a daily basis. He also served in that capacity on such popular films as JAWS 2, More American Graffiti, The Blues Brothers, Starman and Predator 2.

He branched out into producing in 1989 with the Mark Harmon comedy Worth Winning. He also helped produce Vital Signs, Predator 2 and the Bette Midler/Dennis Farina comedy That Old Feeling. He was consulting on a sci-fi film titles One Million Times at the time of his death. imdB shows the film in pre-production, which means it hasn’t been made yet. However, they also show a running time of one hour twenty-six minutes. It hasn’t been released to my knowledge.

I had the great opportunity of interviewing Mr. Joyner for the book “Jaws 2: the Making of the Hollywood Sequel,” and he spoke fondly of his time on the set and, more importantly, of the friends he had made. He was gracious with his time and I thank him for sharing his stories.

Mr. Joyner passed away on February 22, 2023.

Words by Michael A Smith. Michael is co-author of Jaws 2: The Making Of The Hollywood Sequel. You can order the book by contacting Michael at OsFanMike@aol.com.

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