Believe it or not, it’s been 50 years since the film we all blame for our fear of sharks was released—Jaws, of course.
But still to this day, one of its child stars is making a pretty penny off his role, having been just 12 years old at the time of its cinematic release.
Now aged 62, Jeffrey Voorhees played Alex Kintner in the 1975 Steven Spielberg-directed adventure thriller.
Like many of the characters, though, poor Alex didn’t have much screentime, as he was brutally attacked and killed by a shark while floating on his raft. Naturally, things got rather bloody.
However, we’re sure Jeffrey isn’t too fussed about only playing a small part now, as he’s forged a living off the film thanks to fan interest standing the test of time.
These days, he travels far and wide to meet people. He also sells personalised memorabilia and even hosts guided tours on the island of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, where the movie was shot.
‘It pays to die,’ the actor previously said.
‘I was a 12-year-old kid who was in the movie for, like, a minute, but there are some real Jaws fanatics out there.
‘One guy in England just bought 125 photos. I do signings. They fly me all over the world and pay me in cash at those things—around £10,000 a time.
‘There are Jaws tours and people pay double if I’m on them, and next month I’m appearing at three Meet, Greet and Mingle Parties.’
And that’s not all, as Jeffrey is still paid each time Jaws airs on TV, anywhere in the world.
‘My brother lives in Portugal, and I’ll get texts from him going, “Good news, you just died on TV over here. You’ll get another cheque”,’ he joked.
Furthermore, he’s earned a killing with videos for fans on Cameo, with one family even paying for him to send a message after their loved one died while watching the film from his sofa.
‘I said, “Hey, your father and I had a little something in common. He died watching me die. This is the dead Alex Kintner, Jeff Voorhees, here on Martha’s Vineyard—Amity Island. Just want to say—have a Jawesome funeral”,’ Jeffrey revealed.
‘I thought they’d be annoyed, but they gave me a five-star review.’
The former actor has learned not to be ashamed of his movie past, and, well, with the coin he’s making off the back of it five decades later, we reckon that’s wise.
‘At first, I used to hide from the fact that I’d been in Jaws, and then finally I realised I could make some good money and make people happy.’
Jaws has become one of cinema’s most successful franchises, not only expanding into three sequels but also a theme park ride, video games, and various other crazy merchandise, all thanks to the 1974 novel of the same name.
While characters come and go throughout the film series, the Brody family is featured in every one as the primary antithesis to the great white shark attacking people in the US and the Bahamas.
The original Jaws movie was one of the first ‘high-concept’ films ever made, complete with that iconic, suspenseful theme tune, which, quite rightly, won an Oscar.
In total, the four Jaws movies have grossed over $800million (£590m) worldwide, even if commercial reception did wane with every new addition.
What’s more, author Peter Benchley has publicly expressed regret over ever writing the original book, since it encouraged a widespread fear of sharks. His interest in the creatures began when he spent summers in Nantucket.
‘What I now know, which wasn’t known when I wrote Jaws, is that there is no such thing as a rogue shark which develops a taste for human flesh,’ Benchley told the Animal Attack Files in 2000.
‘No one appreciates how vulnerable they are to destruction.’’
Consequently, he spent much of his life until he died in 2006 as an ocean activist and wrote books advocating shark conservation.
Even filmmaker Spielberg himself has admitted that Jaws became ‘a living nightmare’ due to the ‘worst’ filming conditions imaginable at the time.
He told Vanity Fair previously that while it’s now a fun movie for audiences to watch, life on set was very different.
‘It was made under the worst of conditions. People versus the eternal sea. The sea won the battle, but where we won was with audiences in every country.’
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