Elizabeth Lee Fierro (February 13, 1929 – April 5, 2020)
[ was an American actress and theater promoter best known for playing Mrs. Kintner in the '']Jaws
Jaws or Jaw may refer to:
Anatomy
* Jaw, an opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth
** Mandible, the lower jaw
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Jaws (James Bond), a character in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' and ''Moonraker''
* ...
'' film franchise.
Career
Fierro acted in a famous scene in the 1975 film ''Jaws'', in which she (as Mrs. Kintner) slapped the police chief. The scene required several takes.
Fierro recalled slapping the actor playing the police chief (Roy Scheider
Roy Richard Scheider (; November 10, 1932 – February 10, 2008) was an American actor and amateur boxer. Described by AllMovie as "one of the most unique and distinguished of all Hollywood actors", he gained fame for his leading and supporting ...
) 17 times, saying "I slapped him hard with a loose wrist, which was what I was taught in acting school."
Fierro reportedly had also "objected to the profanity" of the scene's dialogue as originally drafted, and the director, Steven Spielberg, wanted dialogue that accorded with Fierro's "everywoman looks," so the scene's dialogue was rewritten the day before it was filmed.
Fierro lived for many years on Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...
, where from 1974 to 2017 she was artistic director of the Island Theatre Workshop and mentored hundreds of aspiring actors.
Kevin Ryan, the Theater's board president in 2020, who had worked with her for 30 years, estimated that Fierro had mentored and taught theater to more than 1,000 children, and recalled Fierro as "fiercely dedicated to the mission of teaching. She, no matter what it was, would stay at it and get the job done."
In 2013, Fierro received a "Woman of the Year" award by Women Empowered to Make Healthy Choices for her local theater workshop.
Personal life and death
Fierro had training as an actress in theater but not as a screen actress.[
In her personal life Fierro had five children.][
In mid-2017, Fierro moved to ]Aurora, Ohio
Aurora is a city in Portage County, Ohio, United States. It is a suburb of Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, and is co-extensive with, and formed from, the former township of Aurora, which was formed from the Connecticut Western Reserve. It is part of ...
, to an assisted living facility, to be closer to her family.[ She died from ]COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
on April 5, 2020.
Filmography
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fierro, Lee
1929 births
2020 deaths
American people of Italian descent
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Ohio
Actresses from Massachusetts
Place of birth missing
People from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts
Jaws (franchise)
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses