Robert Shaw: An Actor’s Life on the Set of JAWS and Beyond

Timed to the 50th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, an intimate and richly told portrait of the iconic actor and writer Robert Shaw.

A must-read for fans of JAWS , classic cinema, literary biography, powerful women, and stories of brilliant men who burned brightly and died too soon.

An unconventional biography told through the eyes of Robert Shaw’s nephew, this is narrative nonfiction at its most intimate and revealing—a raw, riveting journey into the heart and mind of one of the most complex figures in 20th-century film and theater. Robert Shaw unforgettably commanded attention as the weathered seaman Captain Quint in the blockbuster sensation, Jaws . But what came before and after that landmark film is as dramatic as the hunt for the great white shark itself.

Shaw was shaped by brilliant, forceful women and haunted by personal demons. Capturing the many facets of the vibrant, generous, and sometimes polarizing man, Myers explores the forces that shaped a dynamic personality—including Robert’s indomitable mother, his deeply troubled father, and his activist sister, Joanna, with whom Robert shared an unbreakable bond. Out of the traumatic events of their childhood in the Orkney Islands and Cornwall, Mrs. Shaw pushed her children to pursue their dreams. For Robert, that dream was acting and writing.

Despite a storied career on the British and American stage—as both performer and playwright—and a string of hit films including From Russia with Love , A Man for All Seasons , The Sting , and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three , international celebrity eluded Robert . . . until he was summoned to star in “a little horror film” called Jaws .

Through nearly 300 pages of vivid storytelling and never-before-published material, the book brings readers behind the scenes of JAWS —and deep into the Shaw family itself. When his sister Joanna, a lifelong crusader for equal rights, watched Robert being devoured by a mechanical shark named ‘Bruce,’ she was not thinking of the movie, but of the demons eating at her brother from the inside.

Robert Shaw was a warrior, both on and off screen, and like his most iconic character, he refused to wear a life jacket. From his Tony and Academy Award-nominated performances to his prolific work as a novelist and playwright, Robert Shaw lived a life of extremes—never dull, never safe, and never forgotten.