Two-time Academy Award nominee, Roy Scheider, whom everyone remembers from his role as the fearless police chief in “Jaws” died Sunday at age 75.

Scheider died at the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. He had been suffering from multiple myeloma for years, a cancer of the blood cells, but the hospital did not relieve a clear cause of his death.

A classically trained actor, Scheider’s professional debut came playing Mercutio in a 1961 New York Shakespeare Festival production of “Romeo and Juliet.” He continued to do theater while pursuing a film career. His first movie was Del Tenney’s “Curse of The Living Corpse” (1964), but Scheider drew attention on himself with “Klute” in 1971, followed months later by “The French Connection,” which brought him his first Oscar nomination for his supporting role as a narcotics detective partnered with Gene Kackman.

The role earned Scheider some of his best reviews. He "made you feel you were watching Fosse himself. It wasn't an impersonation; it was as if Fosse had taken over his body, from the inside. That's the only role in which Scheider had an exciting presence, and it wasn't his; we seemed to be looking right through him to Fosse,” Pauline Kael wrote later in the New Yorker.

The second- nomination came eight years later, for playing the womanizing, pill-popping Bob Fosse alter ego Joe Gideon in the semi-autobiographical “All That Jazz,” which Fosse co-wrote and directed.

However, Scheider will be best remembered as Martin Brody, chief of police for a Massachusetts island community terrorized by a great white shark in the 1975 blockbuster "Jaws." He repeated the role in the inevitable, far less successful 1978 sequel, “Jaws 2.” Who does not remember one of his memorable lines from the movie, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat,” which was ranked No. 35 on the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest movie quotes.

His four –decade career include more than 60 films, as well as numerous roles on stage and television. Among other notable films, he appeared in “Marathon Man” (1976), “Sorcerer” (1977), “The Deer Hunter” (1979), “Still of the Night” (1982), “Blue Thunder” (1983), “2010” (1984), “52 Pickup” (1986) and “The Russia House” (1990).

He also appeared in "The Peacekeeper," "Red Serpent," "The Punisher" and "The Rainmaker." In his last role, he played a policeman in the film "Iron Cross."

Scheider's first marriage, which ended in divorce, was to film editor Cynthia Scheider. He is survived by his second wife, documentary filmmaker Brenda King, and three children, Maximillia Scheider, Molly Scheider and Christian Verrier Scheider.