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Thread: Peter Benchley

  1. #1
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    Oct 2007
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    Central Jersey
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    Peter Benchley

    I was very surprised to learn that he lived in Princeton, which isn't too far from me. Does anyone have any info on his final resting place?




    -K.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
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    Wolfsschanze
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    Find a grave says unknown. I hate when that happens. "Jaws" is one of my favorite movies ever. Robert Shaw is awesome as Quint. I just watched him today in "From Russia with Love" He looks funny as a blonde.

  3. #3
    Katie Guest
    Does anyone else think that Peter looked a lot like Stephen King. Every time I see Jaws, I think of SK.

  4. #4
    Jack-O-Lantern Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by JefeStone View Post
    Find a grave says unknown. I hate when that happens. "Jaws" is one of my favorite movies ever. Robert Shaw is awesome as Quint. I just watched him today in "From Russia with Love" He looks funny as a blonde.
    "Jaws" really does stand up, it's one of my favorites too. This was one of those rare occasions when the movie was FAR better than the novel...

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
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    The music spooked me more than the shark. LOL.
    GOD IS NOT DEAD





  6. #6
    John Connor Guest
    I saw Jaws when I was about 12 and it changed my whole life considering I grew up on a river and we lived at the beach all summer. Scared the SHIT out of me. Even in swimming pools I thought the shark was going to get me and then there was some James Bond movie where a door opens and sharks are released in the pool so that didn't help matters.

    If Peter Benchley was 65 when he died why does he look 105? (see pic)

    Jaws
    Doubleday editor Tom Congdon saw some of Benchley's articles and invited Benchley to lunch to discuss some ideas for books. Congdon was not impressed by Benchley's proposals for non-fiction but was interested in his idea of a novel about a great white shark terrorizing a beach resort. Congdon offered Benchley an advance of $1,000 leading to the novelist submitting the first 100 pages. Much of the work had to be rewritten as the publisher was not happy with the initial tone. Benchley worked by winter in a room above a furnace company in Pennington, New Jersey, and in the summer in a converted turkey coop in Stonington, Connecticut.[2]
    Jaws was published in 1974 and became a great success, staying on the bestseller list for some 44 weeks. Steven Spielberg has said that he initially found many of the characters unsympathetic and wanted the shark to win.[1] Book critics such as Michael Rogers of Rolling Stone Magazine shared the sentiment but the book struck a chord with readers.
    Benchley co-wrote the screenplay with Carl Gottlieb (along with the uncredited Howard Sackler and John Milius, who provided the first draft of the memorable USS Indianapolis speech) for the Spielberg film released in 1975. Benchley made a cameo appearance as a news reporter on the beach. The film, starring Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw, was released in the summer season, traditionally considered to be the graveyard season for films. However, Universal Studios decided to break tradition by releasing the movie with extensive television advertising. Tautly edited by Verna Fields, featuring an ominous score by John Williams and infused with such an air of understated menace by director Steven Spielberg that he was hailed as the heir apparent to "Master of Suspense" Alfred Hitchcock, Jaws became the first movie to gross $100 million at the US box office. It eventually grossed $450 million globally. George Lucas used a similar strategy in 1977 for Star Wars which broke the box office records set by Jaws, and hence the summer blockbuster was born. [2] The film spawned three sequels, none of which matched the success of the original critically or commercially, two video games, "Jaws" in 1987 and "Jaws Unleashed" in 2006; both met with mostly negative critical attention. The film was also adapted into a theme park attraction at Universal Studios Florida (in Orlando, Florida and Hollywood, California), and two musicals: "JAWS The Musical!", which premiered in the summer of 2004 at the Minnesota Fringe Festival; and "Giant Killer Shark: The Musical", which premiered in the summer of 2006 at the Toronto Fringe Festival.
    Benchley estimated that he earned enough from book sales, film rights and magazine/book club syndication to be able to work independently as a film writer for ten years [3].







  7. #7
    Long Gone Day Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by JefeStone View Post
    Find a grave says unknown. I hate when that happens. "Jaws" is one of my favorite movies ever. Robert Shaw is awesome as Quint. I just watched him today in "From Russia with Love" He looks funny as a blonde.
    Princeton..Cemetery...is..close..to..where..the..Benchleys..lived..on
    Morven.....(see....link..#10).....and..is..basically..a..Presbyterian..
    cemetery.......The..funeral..was..held..in..Princeton.....and..I..will
    try..to..find..out...if..this..is..the..one...

  8. #8
    Long Gone Day Guest
    P.S............Swimming...in...the..ocean...was..never...the..same...for...me....EVER .

  9. #9
    Long Gone Day Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Kman0072 View Post
    I was very surprised to learn that he lived in Princeton, which isn't too far from me. Does anyone have any info on his final resting place?




    -K.
    Princeton.Cemetery.contact
    http://www.princetonol.com/groups/cemetery/contact.html

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Canada
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    6,302
    I would guess to be a Son and Grandson of famous author's
    (Nathaniel, Robert) it must of been hard for Peter to live up
    to the last name.
    But he did. With books like Jaws, and the Deep.

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