Ticket 2 Ride

Just in time for Jaws’ 50th anniversary comes Robert Shaw: An Actor’s Life on the Set of JAWS and Beyond by Shaw’s nephew Christopher Shaw Myers.

Robert Shaw’s life is certainly worthy of a biography, without the glitz of Jaws’ big celebration. His portrayal of Quint is one of film history’s most colorful characters. His telling of the story of the USS Independence is chilling, and the most memorable scene from this titanic of a film.

I looked at a few reader reviews before cracking open the book. That prepared me for not getting much information on Shaw’s work on Jaws. What I learned wasn’t even new to what I had read through the years. That was a disappointment. This book was also very thin about Shaw’s other stage and screen acting roles. While this book focused mostly on Shaw’s family, only a couple of paragraphs mentioned Shaw’s second wife, actress Mary Ure, who died of an accidental alcohol and barbiturate overdose. I don’t believe his first wife was mentioned at all.

It’s easy to list what this book is not. It is subtitled: The Actor’s Life On The Set Of JAWS And Beyond. Maybe it should just read: Beyond; which could include anything. We do read a lot about Shaw’s mother, father and sister Joanna, who is author Christopher Shaw Myers’ mother. We learn far more about them than we do Robert Shaw, who makes the occasional guest appearance in the narrative.

Inside the cover, it is stated that Myers had access to family recordings, letters, scrapbooks and family recollections. From these, Myers develops some very detailed “conversations” that represent quite a bit of the book. I’m not doubting the subject matter, just the overuse of this invented dialogue device.

It’s quite obvious that Robert Shaw grew up in a very troubled family environment with his father being an alcoholic, spending long periods outside of the family home, his sudden and peculiar death, and his mother being quite hard on her five children. Shaw also battled alcoholism, as well as other demons in his quest for both artistic achievement as well as being a good father to his 10 children, from three marriages and two adoptions. I had to learn that fact elsewhere.

Myers misses out by being primarily a story-teller and bypassing his opportunity to provide perspective on a complicated, hot-tempered, driven man and artist. How much of himself did Shaw put into his art? Myers’ family archive of knowledge could have enhanced what other biographers have written about this complex man.

For the casual fan of Robert Shaw, or those wanting Jaws information, this book will be an interesting read. Should you want more, keep looking.