Klute (1971) Klute (1971) It's on TV where I am. One of those films that's supposed to be so tremendous that I can never sit through. My God...it drags. Why didn't anyone respond to my Klute thread? by Anonymous We're afraid this will attract the "Pretty Woman Was an Insult to Hookers" troll. by Anonymous reply 2 08/05/2014 Took me decades to finally watch it, but I liked it. I tend to like slower-paced movies - Pakula seems to work that way. by Anonymous Very stylish movie, shot by the recently deceased Gordon Willis (The Godfather, Manhattan). The single movie that proves Jane Fonda could really act. by Anonymous reply 4 08/05/2014 I found it a bit slow too and why was it named after a supporting character? It should have been called "Bree". by Anonymous I was offered it, but turned it down. I liked Up the Sandbox more. by Anonymous reply 6 08/05/2014 I tried to watch it twice, but I never made it past the first half hour.

by Anonymous 08/05/2014 [quote]The single movie that proves Jane Fonda could really act. Actually, she's just as good in the film she made the year before, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" She would have won the Oscar for that but she was up that year against Maggie Smith in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie." by Anonymous reply 8 08/05/2014 I love this movie. Fonda looked so beautiful and chic. The small human and humorous touches added so much to the movie. Reading Linda Goodman's Sun Signs before bed for instance. That made me smile. I thought Sutherland was sexy as hell and he and Fonda had tremendous chemistry. She more than deserved the Oscar for Best Actress. by Anonymous 08/05/2014 Oh god. Lots of philistines with zero taste on DL today. "Klute" is a classic featuring one of the best female performances of the decade (or any decade, really). Bree's scenes with her therapist rival anything you'll find in a female-centered film today.

The film is also a time capsule of a gritty, dangerous NYC that is no longer giving it rare historical/ethnographic value as well. And R8 is absolutely right about Fonda's performance in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" two years earlier. She absolutely should've won that year of Smith's admittedly great in "Brodie." by Anonymous reply 10 08/05/2014 [quote]The film is also a time capsule of a gritty, dangerous NYC that is no longer giving it rare historical/ethnographic value as well. Oh, God...there are tons of them...most of them more interesting than this snorefest. by Anonymous 08/05/2014 [quote]Bree's scenes with her therapist rival anything you'll find in a female-centered film today. Those scenes were largely improvised or the dialogue was written by Fonda, which makes it even more impressive. Fonda was at her best here. Absolutely amazing. by Anonymous reply 12 08/05/2014 In this movie Fonda has the grooviest early Seventies pad in all of cinema. It is beyond fabulous.

by Anonymous reply 13 08/05/2014 It's a great piece of 70's American filmmaking. I loved the tough, noirish cynicism. Roy Schneider's in it, and Candy Darling. by Anonymous reply 14 08/05/2014 List them then, R11. And not just a rote list of every film made in the entire decade of the 1970s. This specific year 1970-71 New York City. Also, one featuring a cameo by Candy Darling. We'll wait. Wow, you sure showed HER, Miss Bossypants at r15! by Anonymous reply 16 08/05/2014 R15, pull your Halliwell's out of your prolapsed rectum and fuck off whilst you're doing it, you ridiculous twat. by Anonymous reply 17 08/05/2014 I'd rather be bossy than lacking in any kind of cinematic discernment whatsoever, pointless person contributing nothing at R16.

by Anonymous reply 18 08/05/2014 [quote]And not just a rote list of every film made in the entire decade of the 1970s. This specific year 1970-71 New York City. OK:- Andy Warhol's Trash (1970) Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970) Hercules in New York (1970) Hi, Mom! (1970) I Never Sang for My Father (19700 The Boys in the Band (1970) The Landlord (1970) The Out-of-Towners (1970) Where's Poppa? (1970) Bananas (1971) Believe in Me (1971) Born to Win (1971) Carnal Knowledge(1971) Cry Uncle!

(1971) Shaft (1971) Such Good Friends (1971) Taking Off (1971) The Anderson Tapes (1971) The French Connection (1971) The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight (1971) The Panic in Needle Park (1971) Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971) also from that era:- What is a "klute" anyway? Sounds gross. by Anonymous reply 23 08/05/2014 It was supposed to be gritty and then Bree is explaining clients kinks and she said some want her to "tinkle" on them. The use of tickle blew it on that point. by Anonymous reply 24 08/05/2014 We've been so inundated with the MTV Video style of filmmaking in movies and even more so on TV that many people have no patience watching something that doesn't build the story at warp speed.

by Anonymous reply 25 08/05/2014 The prototype for a million romantic thrillers since, and better than all of them. It's still incredible, still holds up for me, and I was born over a decade later. by Anonymous There is slow and deliberate and there is just plain sloooooooow. by Anonymous reply 32 08/05/2014 I didn't like the movie all the much, but Fonda was perfect in it. I thought Fonda was really good in only two roles: Bree in "Klute" and Gloria in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" In both she played a brittle, cold, humorless, emotionally closed off woman. I don't think it was much of an acting stretch. Jane Fonda has always struck me as being a brittle, cold, humorless, emotionally closed off woman. She was certainly a stylish-looking hooker. Or maybe her official title was "call girl." That's supposed to be classier than a mere streetwalker. Anyway, her shag hairstyle was all the rage at one time and she looked good in the seventies sexy slut wardrobe that wore.

She talked to call girls and madams as research for the role. But I thought the scene where she's talking to one of the johns before they have sex to be rather hard to believe. I mean, do call girls REALLY act like that? She's talking to him in a fake sexy-smarmy voice, pretending to be turned on by something he wants to do to her (he whispers something in her ear and she purrs "that's exciting" but tells him it's going to cost more) and basically behaving as though she's looking forward to fucking him. Do call girls REALLY go to all that trouble to make the john think she's turned on by him? And when he's lying on top of her she moans "oh my angel"; that seems to be laying it on kind of thick. But it is kind of funny, because as she's murmuring in fake ecstasy she sneaks a look at her watch to make sure the guy gets only the amount of time that he's paid for. Now THAT seemed believeable. But I don't think hookers normally put on a big display of horniness for their clients like Bree Daniels did.

by Anonymous reply 33 08/05/2014 R33, I'm sure at some point in time a high priced call girl has behaved that way. by Anonymous And you would know how call girls in the early 70s act how exactly, R33? by Anonymous reply 35 08/05/2014 Saw it decades ago. All I remember is her Irish accent in the audition scenes and "oh my angel" during the fuck. by Anonymous reply 36 08/05/2014 [quote]I thought Fonda was really good in only two roles: Bree in "Klute" and Gloria in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" I would add "Barefoot In The Park", "Julia", "Agnes Of God", & "The Morning After". by Anonymous reply 37 08/05/2014 Jane Fonda was also fantastic in the TV movie "The Dollmaker" for which, I believe, she won an Emmy.

She also kills it in this scene from "The Newsroom." Whoever said that all she can do is cold and emotionless bitch hasn't seen her entire oeuvre. by Anonymous reply 44 08/05/2014 Wonderful performance by Fonda with great improvisation in the therapy scenes - a time capsule of second-wave feminism on film. I'm always taken by Fonda in that tight reptilian dress. It's like a chameleon's skin. When she starts unzippping it in front of Klute she presents a perfect metaphor of the film's themes - identity, concealment, role playing, the commodification of the body, and the actress/whore duality. Love the voyeuristic cinematography in this movie as well - all shadows, overhead angles, window/door frames and reflections. The soundtrack is also excellent - especially the "love theme". by Anonymous reply 45 08/05/2014 She was excellent in The Morning After. And some of the films are your list, R19, just plain SUCK. Not every movie shot in New York is a good movie simply because it was shot in New York. The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight? Come on.

by Anonymous reply 46 08/06/2014 R21 I never really understood why she had the "humorless" reputation. Ok, let me rephrase that: I "understand" it, I suppose...it came from her anti-war "crusader persona" and since her films were often very "issue oriented," one persona bled into the other. But if you look at her actual work, she has always been more than capable (meaning very good) at both straight comedy and adding humor to her more dramatic work. The Morning After may be the best example of the latter. I know many think that was a wtf nomination, and as a murder mystery the film isn't exactly great, but it's one of my favorite Fonda performances. I would say Dunaway is easily more guilty of the humorless charge, both in her performances and in real life. And no, Mommie Dearest doesn't count. I too saw Klute on TCM this past Saturday, was it? Great movie, though the psychiatrist scenes have always stood out to me as self-conscious. Therapy sessions may be the hardest thing to make believable and/or effective in movies.

by Anonymous reply 47 08/06/2014 Klute remains a most watchable film, a paean to an era. Jane Fonda's best performance and the only one of her films that I can watch repeatedly. Donald Sutherland's John Klute was perfect, like someone just off the train from Regina. by Anonymous Agree on "The China Syndrome", Jane was excellent and so was Jack Lemmon. by Anonymous reply 51 08/06/2014 R51 that movie has some of the best/scariest car chases, that they had no score and all you could hear were the screeches only added to the tension. Lemmon's best performance, too. And yes one of Fonda's best. Too bad Michael Douglas is of the Dubya "nucular" school. by Anonymous reply 52 08/06/2014 "He's seen my horrible. He's seen me ugly. He's seen me mean. He's seen me whorey. And it doesn't seem to matter. And he seems to accept me.

And I guess having sex with somebody and feeling those sort of feelings towards them is very new to me. And I wish that I didn't keep wanting to destroy it." I love that. I just really know exactly what she's talking about in that moment. by Anonymous It's Jane's skittishness that makes her so sexy. by Anonymous reply 54 08/06/2014 "She talked to call girls and madams..."? Uh, no. She did more than that. She watched through peep holes and keyholes. With permission from the women, she watched them during sessions. And I love-love-love this film. From the madam who pencils in the appointment of an old client--"Mr. Clean!"--to Charles Cioffi, the character actor who tormented Bree, nobody put a foot wrong. This film is perfect. by Anonymous 08/06/2014 "And you would know how call girls in the early 70s act how exactly>' Actually, from reading and listening to interviews of women who were prostitutes I never got the impression they went out of their way to make it seem like they were achieving sexual ecstasy while with a client.

Maybe some of them do that in hopes the client will fall for it (any client who would think a prostitute is really turned on by them is gullible indeed) and give them a big tip, but prostitutes are generally numb to what's being done to them. They have to be, in order to do what they have to do. But in "Klute", Bree Daniels is putting on quite an act. I don't think a lot of prostitutes would go to all that trouble. But maybe she just wanted to be a very, very good prostitute, one who wants her clients to believe that he actually loves having sex with them. But a guy would have to be very dumb to believe that. by Anonymous reply 56 08/06/2014 "She talked to call girls and madams..."? Uh, no. She did more than that. She watched through peep holes and keyholes. With permission from the women, she watched them during sessions." You seem to be confusing Jane Fonda with Shirley MacLaine. In one of her memoirs, she related how she prepared for her role as Irma La Douce.

Researching her role as the happy hooker Irma (contrast the cheerful Irma with the morose Bree), MacLaine, accompanied by an interpreter, went out in search of a Irma-esque hooker to study. She found one in the person of a young woman she called "Danielle", who was supposedly the best hooker around. One of the "mecs (pimps)" wanted to sell her pornographic pictures to refer to "like a technical advisor" but she declined. Danielle insisted that in order to really know what is it to be a hooker she should watch her "at work." MacLaine said she didn't want to, but surrounded by members of the Paris underworld, she felt it was in her own best interests to go along with it. She watched through a peephole as Danielle and three other hookers serviced a regular client. Later, trying to figure out what made Danielle tick, she questioned her about her feelings and thoughts and ideas but couldn't get much out of her except "I like my job and it pays well." During one question session Danielle starts trembling and runs out; a madam later tells MacLaine that Danielle was a heroin addict.

It seems that she begged her mec to release her from her lucrative "job" and the pimp gave her heroin to numb herself instead. The story of Danielle, the happy, expert hooker, was very sad. by Anonymous "Klute" is great, but I loved her best in "Cat Ballou." by Anonymous reply 58 08/06/2014 Yep, the only movies I watch with Fonda are Barefoot in the Park, The China Syndrome, Klute and guilty pleasure, The Chapman Report. by Anonymous reply 59 08/06/2014 It's funny, I first saw both Klute and They Shoot Horses around the same time maybe five or six years ago. At the time, I thought her performance in Klute was stronger. But now I hardly remember a thing from it and I remember so many scenes of hers from Horses. by Anonymous reply 60 08/06/2014 [quote] And some of the films are your list, [R19], just plain SUCK. Not every movie shot in New York is a good movie simply because it was shot in New York.

The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight? Come on. And it looks as if r19 did exactly what they were told not to do: googled "1970-'71 New York movies" and listed every one but "Klute". They're even in alphabetical order, fer Christ's sake! by Anonymous reply 61 08/06/2014 "Jane Fonda was also fantastic in the TV movie "The Dollmaker" for which, I believe, she won an Emmy." Apparently "The Dollmaker" was a pet project of hers, so course she would want to star in it. I read the book; I thought she was incredibly miscast as Gertie Nevels, a big, roughhewn, rural woman, a true survivor who had to endure incredible tragedy and bad luck but still managed to keep going. Jane Fonda, with her trembling voice, slender build and pretty, delicate features in no way resembles the Gertie Nevels of the novel. I didn't like her acting much, either; I just didn't find her convincing as a poor woman from Kentucky with a brood of children to feed.

But she won an Emmy, I guess because she had the "courage" to take on a role that required her to look tired and worn-out. But she was still movie-star pretty, and I thought that totally ruined the integrity of the story. She was just not the right TYPE for a role like that. by Anonymous reply 62 08/06/2014 Give it a rest R19...please....please? Can't we ever just have a nice thread where the people that DO like something talk about it? Do you have to do this shit every fucking time? [BLANK],is SO overrated,SO boring, SO derivative. Just fucking STOP! Klute is one my favorite films. I've watched it many times. Sexy. Terrifying & gorgeously filmed. Amazed that the dumbbells of The DL never get tired of repeating the same schtick. It's exhausting. by Anonymous Jane, winning her first Oscar for "Klute". by Anonymous reply 67 08/07/2014 [quote]please....please? Can't we ever just have a nice thread where the people that DO like something talk about it?

You mean...if you like a film everyone has to have the same opinion...as you. [quote]Klute is one my favorite films. I've watched it many times [quote]Amazed that the dumbbells of The DL never get tired of repeating the same schtick. Talking of dumbbells... reply 68 08/07/2014 I saw Klute when it was released in the summer of 71. What a great period that was for going to the movies. Most Hollywood films were made for adults then, not kids and fanboys. by Anonymous 08/07/2014 "You seem to be confusing Jane Fonda with Shirley MacLaine." R57, no the person who originally posted was not confusing the two. Jane also spoke with real-life call girls in preparation for her role as Bree Daniels. by Anonymous reply 70 08/07/2014 Regarding whether or not a whore would really put on an act like that - remember, Bree is also a wannabe actress. I always took those scenes as showing her trying on a character, practicing her skills.

by Anonymous reply 71 08/07/2014 Ok, so no mention of "Barbarella." Was that a good flick? My mom saw it when I was a kid and used to make fun of it. by Anonymous reply 73 08/07/2014 "no the person who originally posted was not confusing the two. Jane also spoke with real-life call girls in preparation for her role as Bree Daniels." Jane didn't look through a peephole observing prostitutes plying their trade. Shirley MacLaine, in her memoir "Don't Fall Off The Mountain", recounted how she did just that. by Anonymous reply 74 08/07/2014 R62 If you were from the south and had relatives from the era of that t.v. movie, you would be able to understand how Jane Fonda nailed that role. Sorry for coming across as rude. Jane showed raw and pure acting in "Klute" and that is one of the main reasons as to why the film still lives on. by Anonymous reply 75 08/07/2014 I just love this movie.

Bree's abject loneliness surrounds her in every scene until the end where she finally is free of it. And, Sutherland was hot. reply 76 08/07/2014 "If you were from the south and had relatives from the era of that t.v. movie, you would be able to understand how Jane Fonda nailed that role." She didn't "nail" the role. She was inadequate in it. Levon Helm, who played her husband, was the one who "nailed" it. He looked and sounded exactly like the type of man he was playing. by Anonymous [all posts by tedious, racist idiot removed.] by Anonymous reply 78 08/07/2014 R76, Sutherland in Klute is like Tommy Lee Jones in Coal Miner's Daughter. Their excellence is lost because the actresses are so extraordinary in their roles. by Anonymous reply 79 08/08/2014 Thanks for the clip R67. That has to be the classiest acceptance speech I have ever seen. I think Klute is a wonderful film. I've liked almost all of Jane Fonda's work.

She can be very funny as in 9-5. I'm trying to think of a film she made with George Segal that always cracked me up. They play a well to do couple who get poor when he gets fired or something and they support themselves by robbing places. Anyone remember the title of the film? by Anonymous MovieMartyr.com - Klute Klute (Alan J. Pakula) 1971 A police procedural on the outside, Alan Pakulaï¿½s Klute works most effectively as an exploration of the whore as the consummate actress. In this character study, Jane Fonda plays Bree, a prostitute whoï¿½s an aspiring actress by day: sheï¿½s a call girl who desperately needs a callback. Fondaï¿½s performance is layered enough that this almost becomes a meta-movie (all the more impressive considering its generic roots). Sheï¿½s Jane Fonda, playing a whore who plays at being an actress (or is that the other way around?), who plays into the fantasies of her clients. Itï¿½s almost impossible to watch without considering the function of the Hollywood star system, which treats the masses like a john.

We pay our money, get two hours of an exciting fantasy that seems tailor made for us, and then, after the movieï¿½s climax, are made to revert to reality, until the next time. When Bree talks midway through the film about a desire to be ï¿½faceless and bodyless,ï¿½ she might be revealing more about her desire to please others than at any other time in the film. The actress, it seems is a surrogate for our fantasies, because she doesnï¿½t feel comfortable in expressing her own. ï¿½The only responsibility you have to me is to enjoy yourself,ï¿½ she says, hoping weï¿½ll buy into the illusion that sheï¿½s without any needs, but her messy apartment suggests the pretense of control is a tenuous for her as it is for us. While Breeï¿½s eventual relationship with police detective Klute (Donald Sutherland) might bring these issues too close to the surface to their own good, for a while the movie seems revelatory in its willingness to call us on our relationship with the facade of the movies.

Itï¿½s not really of a stinker as a cop movie, however, so the film doesnï¿½t exactly fizzle when it relies more heavily on its plot. Klute is a small town cop from rural Pennsylvania whoï¿½s on the trail of a missing family man that apparently wrote sexually explicit letters to Bree. Upon arriving in New York City, he finds a seemingly infinite well of depravity. Strung out junkies, orgiastic discos, innumerable call girls, and a generally gritty look dominate the cityï¿½s vice-filled landscape. The movie wants us to believe its weak minded thesis, which says the city is corrupt, and the country is somehow pure, but it doesnï¿½t really seem to recognize the willing corruptibility of the title character or that the stalker theyï¿½re tracking came from the boondocks. Still, the police procedural works in this backdrop, since as Klute is trying to figure out what drives Breeï¿½s stalker, we see Bree trying to figure out how her clients get their rocks off.

The environment becomes hostile toward Bree in nearly every shot, and we arenï¿½t sure that the dark corners in the edges of the frame are empty of watchful eyes. Even the most basic dialogue scenes are framed, so that the person listening to Bree becomes a dark, unknown figure. This city is a world dominated by shadows and silhouettes. Pakulaï¿½s direction isnï¿½t fussy, but it creates an effective, suffocating slow burn nonetheless. The tension levels are high enough throughout that weï¿½re never bored, even when weï¿½re sure we know how the action will play out. The minimalist score heightens the suspense considerably, and even the most mundane scenes seem charged with energy because of the visual scheme of the movie, which lends an uncertainty to the movie that makes us think that every scene could potentially turn into a scary one. Fondaï¿½s performance is solid, but thatï¿½s partially because the script gives her several long scenes that are near-monologues.

In any case, she creates in Bree one of the most memorable prostitutes to hit the big screen, alongside Leaving Las Vegasï¿½s Elisabeth Shue, Belle De Jourï¿½s Catherine Deneuve, and Pixoteï¿½s Marilia Pera. Itï¿½s a role that enriches the possibilities of the drama around it. Thanks to its complexities of character and morality, Klute creates a proposition for the audience in which thereï¿½s no such thing as simple pleasure, even if weï¿½re paying. Movie is called Klute but it's all about Bree : Cleveland Memory Project, CSU Library Movie is called Klute but it's all about Bree Cleveland Press June 25, 1971 "Klute" is a murder mystery although you have to get well into the movie before you or anyone else knows there's a murder. Even the mystery is rather played down as producer-director Alan J. Pakula obviously strived for many other things. The title role refers to Donald Sutherland, a small town cop whose friend has disappeared.

Police and FBI produce obscene letters that the missing man had mailed to a New York call girl although the man supposedly was happily married and above reproach. The missing man is wealthy and his family hires Klute to find him after the police and the FBI have failed. Klute heads for New York City and tracks down the high priced call girl (Jane Fonda), the only big city link to the missing man. THE MOVIE is really about her, not Klute. She goes by the unlikely first name of Bree and while she earns her way as a call girl she also is a sometimes model and is studying acting. But she likes being a call girl most of all, she tells her psychiatrist, because she is in control of the situation and is really acting all the time she is working or whatever. Physically the whole thing means nothing to her she explains. Klute tries to question Bree, gets the door slammed in his face, but living in an apartment below taps her phone. He keeps trying and it is fear that finally causes her to cooperate since a mysterious someone is lurking on the roof above her skylight apartment.

THERE IS AN ambiguous trail that leads to other prostitutes as Klute tries to find a man who gets his kicks by beating up women and who may or may not be the missing man. Director Pakula seems less concerned with his story than with his characters who are mostly complex. The complexities of the Jane Fonda character come through best of all partly because it is the most fully developed role in the movie and partly because Miss Fonda manages to suggest the uncertainties that lie beneath her aggressiveness. Sutherland is least successful, turning in a performance that is played on one note all the way through. THERE ARE SOME well done bit parts that also suggest complex people not the least of which is a pathological killer who keeps a tape recorder going as he doe his thing. The whole movie is self-consciously artsy with long periods of silence, carefully composed camera setups that I guess are supposed to suggest remoteness and alienation. Not unexpectedly there develops a relationship between Klute and Bree which sends her running back to her psychiatrist. The picture's climax is contrived which should prove to be no surprise since so is everything else in the movie.

Roy Scheider - Film Actor - Biography.com Roy Scheider Actor Roy Scheider landed his breakthrough role in 1971’s Klute, and later played Police Chief Martin Brody in the Steven Spielberg-directed film Jaws. IN THESE GROUPS “You're gonna need a bigger boat.” Roy Scheider Synopsis Roy Scheider was born on November 10, 1932, in Orange, New Jersey. He made his film debut in The Curse of the Living Corpse in 1964, and landed his breakthrough role in 1971’s Klute. He earned his first starring role in 1973's The Seven-Ups. In 1975, Scheider snagged his best-known role: as Police Chief Martin Brody in Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg. He died on February 10, 2008, in Little Rock, Arkansas. Early Life Actor Roy Richard Scheider was born on November 10, 1932, into a working class family in Orange, New Jersey. His, father, Roy Sr., was an auto mechanic who owned and operated a local gas station.

His mother, Anna, stayed home to take care of Roy, who was stricken with rheumatic fever at the age of 6. As a result of his illness, Scheider was forced to spend long periods in bed. To entertain himself, he became a voracious reader. But Scheider didn't let his poor health sideline him for long; Roy, Jr. began helping his father in the family business when he was 8 years old. He also competed in several sports, including boxing, which he participated in through the local YMCA. A 140-pound welterweight, Scheider made it to the finals of the New Jersey Diamond Glove championships in 1951. During the competition, an opponent broke Scheider's nose, giving it its distinctive shape. By the the time Scheider graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, he had nearly recovered from his bout with rheumatic fever. Except for a slight heart murmur, Scheider's doctors gave him a clean bill of health. He headed to Rutgers University in New Jersey to study history, but transferred to Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, after his first year.

At Franklin and Marshall, Scheider got his first true taste of the theater, appearing in several stage productions while he earned his history degree and contemplated law school. But the acting bug hadn't quite bitten for Scheider; instead, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1955, serving three years and rising to the rank of first lieutenant before he was discharged. Aspiring Actor Upon his return from the military, Scheider intended to finally head to law school. But when the drama department at Franklin and Marshall offered him a part in a Shakespeare production, Scheider decided to try his hand at acting again. His performance caught the eye of a Broadway scout, and Scheider made his professional acting debut in 1961, appearing as Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet for the New York Shakespeare festival. Scheider's film debut came three years later in The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964), a low-budget horror film. He also played minor roles in such films as Paper Lion (1968) and Stiletto (1969) before he landed his breakthrough role in the 1971 thriller, Klute.

The movie, starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, featured Scheider as a pimp for a call-girl ring. The film helped put Scheider on the map in Hollywood, and landed Fonda several awards, including an Oscar and a Golden Globe. Scheider's turn at the award ceremonies would come soon enough; the budding actor landed his first Academy Award nomination that same year for his turn in The French Connection (1971), a film about two undercover cops (played by Scheider and Gene Hackman) who try to bust a heroin cartel. Scheider's fame helped him land his first starring role in 1973, playing a renegade cop in the action flick The Seven-Ups. The film featured some of Hollywood's most spectacular car chase sequences—but received no real recognition from fans or critics. Big Break Then Scheider snagged what would become his best known role: playing Police Chief Martin Brody in Steven Spielberg's 1975 film, Jaws. The movie, based on a novel by writer Peter Benchley, told the story of a killer Great White shark who slaughtered unwitting beach-goers in a New England resort town.

To save the town's reputation, Brody and marine biologist Matt Hooper take the beast head-on, hoping to kill the creature once and for all. Jaws was an instant smash hit, becoming the first film in movie history to gross more than $100 million and launching the era of the Hollywood blockbuster. One of Scheider's most famous lines in Jaws, the ad-libbed "You're gonna need a bigger boat," was also voted No. 35 on the American Film Institute's list of best quotes from movies. Mainstream Success A year after the success with Jaws, Scheider appeared as secret agent Doc Levy in Marathon Man, co-starring Dustin Hoffman and Sir Laurence Olivier. The critically acclaimed thriller, which told the story of a history student caught in an international crime conspiracy, featured Scheider as double agent Doc Levy. For his next project, Scheider had to pass on a part in the Oscar-winning Vietnam War drama The Deer Hunter (the role went to Robert De Niro) to reprise his role as Chief Brody in Jaws 2 (1978). Unfortunately, the action sequel turned out not to be as successful as the original.

But Scheider bounced back from his box-office flop with the 1979 film All That Jazz. The movie gave viewers a sneak peek into the making of a Broadway musical, while also telling the semi-autobiographical story about choreographer and director Bob Fosse. Because Scheider played Fosse, the actor had to learn how to dance for the role. His performance landed Scheider another Oscar nomination, this time for Best Actor. Scheider's film career slowed down a bit in the 1980s, but the offers kept coming. Memorable appearances included Blue Thunder (1983), 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), Russia House (1990) and Romeo is Bleeding (1993). One of his most praised performances during this period was as the wisecracking Dr. Benway in Naked Lunch (1991). On TV, Scheider starred in Spielberg's SeaQuest DSV and frequently appeared in the TV drama Third Watch. Later Years In 2004, Scheider was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the white blood cells.

In June 2005, the actor underwent a bone marrow transplant and entered partial remission shortly afterward. But Scheider's health problems returned, and the actor died on February 10, 2008, of complications from a staph infection. At the time of his death, Scheider he had two movies due for release in 2008: Dark Honeymoon, which had been completed, and Iron Cross, which was in post-production. Dark Honeymoon, a horror film starring Daryl Hannah and Tia Carrerre, was released in 2008 to little fanfare. After fitful starts and stops, Iron Cross was completed with CGI techniques to stand in for Scheider. Scheider was married to Cynthia Bebout in 1962. The couple had one daughter, Maximillia, before divorcing in the late 1980s. He married actress Brenda Siemer in 1989, and the two stayed together until his death. Scheider is also survived by son Christian and daughter Molly. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information

Question: Who played the title role in the 1971 film ‘Klute’?
Answer: Donald Sutherland