STUNTMAN SHARK DEATH: HORRIFIC TRAGEDY OR SICK MOVIE PUBLICITY STUNT?

Whenever a new shark movie is announced, there is always huge speculation and excitement around how the shark will be created. Will it be CGI, practical effects, real sharks or a combination?

During pre-production of Jaws, producers David Brown and Richard Zanuck landed on the idea on catching and training a real Great White to perform on camera as required. After being educated by shark experts, this idea was quickly thrown out.

Pre-Jaws (1975), the shark movie was in it’s infancy and strived for realism, often using real sharks - sometimes ending in tragedy.

Based on the Willam Canning book ‘His Bones Are Coral’, 1969’s “Shark!” tells the story of a gunrunner (Burt Reynolds) losing his cargo near a small coastal Sudanese town so he's stuck there. When a woman hires him to raid a sunken ship in the shark-infested waters, he sees a chance to compensate for his losses. He's not the only one.

Co-written and directed by Samuel Fuller, ‘Shark!’ was a Mexico-American co-production, with filming taking place for nine weeks in 1967, in Manzanillo, Mexico, which stood in for the Sudan. Jose Marco was hired as Burt Reynold’s stunt double to shoot some of the underwater, shark sequences. It would be his last job.

Shark attack and speculation

No official account exists on the exact circumstances and events that lead to Jose Marco’s death, however differing versions of what happened have emerged. Some claim a great white shark broke into the enclosure where they were filming (off the coast of Mexico) and devoured the unfortunate stunt diver.

‘A realistic film became too real!’ - Life Magazine

Others state that a shark used in filming was improperly sedated and took Mr. Marcos life (by all accounts this is the most credible version of what happened).

Publicity & Controversy

Seizing the publicity Jose’s ‘on-set death’ had brought the production, the studio changed the film’s original titles of ‘Caine!’ to ‘Shark!’ Sharks feature very little in the actual movie. Producers allegedly used the footage of his ' death in the opening scene in the movie although this is unconfirmed. This caused director Samuel Fuller to quit and disown the film entirely.

When Fuller saw the version that was released to theaters, he said it had been butchered so badly in editing that it was no longer recognizable as his film. He demanded that his name be taken off of it, but the producers refused.

IMDB lists ‘Shark!” as Jose Marco’s only screen credit

According to "Life" Magazine, which did a story in 1968 on the filming, Marco was in the water in scuba gear alongside a subdued bull shark when a great white managed to make it through the nets protecting the area from the rest of the sea. It charged at the camera crew before launching at Marco and disemboweling him where he swam. Crew members tried to steer the shark away from Marco with spears, but the animal was undeterred, and the stuntman's injuries were so severe that he later died at a hospital.

However, a detailed investigation revealed that there was no official record of the attack, no record of a stuntman named Jose Marco, and no hospital records of the incident, although Marco was allegedly in a hospital for two days before he died. "Life" had no comment.

Jose Marco would have been just 32 years old at the time of the incident.

Words by Ross Williams

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