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In the original script, Quint was killed off by drowning. The rope from the harpoon that he fires at the shark wraps around his foot and he is pulled under by the shark, calling for Brody to give him the knife. (This was also the way the character was killed off in the book and, according to an interview with Steven Spielberg about this scene, it is similar to the way Ahab dies in "Moby Dick".) However, it was decided that Quint should be eaten as this would be the most tragic for the character based on his experiences on the USS Indianapolis, so the script was changed to what is in the movie.
Several decades after the film's release, Lee Fierro walked into a seafood restaurant and noticed an "Alex Kintner Sandwich" on the menu. She commented that she had played his mother many years ago. Jeffrey Voorhees, owner of the restaurant, ran out to meet her. He had played her son, and they hadn't seen each other since the original movie shoot.
According to director Steven Spielberg, the prop arm looked too fake in the scene where Chrissie's remains are discovered, so instead, they buried a female crew member in the sand with only her arm exposed.
When composer John Williams originally played the score for director Steven Spielberg, Spielberg laughed and said, "That's funny, John, really; but what did you really have in mind for the theme of Jaws?" Spielberg later stated that without Williams's score, the movie would only have been half as successful and according to Williams, it jump-started his career.
According to writer Carl Gottlieb, Roy Scheider ad-libbed the line "You're gonna need a bigger boat."
Over 67 million people in the U.S. went to see this film when it was initially released in 1975, making it the first summer "blockbuster."
Steven Spielberg: Voice on Quint's marine radio, when Mrs. Brody tries to contact her husband on the "Orca."