Movie News

Jaws author dead

Mon 13 Feb 2:00 PM

Peter Benchley, the author of Jaws, died in his New Jersey home on Saturday night, aged 65. The writer died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive and a fatal scarring of the lungs, his widow Wendy confirmed.

Benchley's 1974 best-selling novel was adapted into Steven Spielberg's hugely successful blockbuster and, despite many people being scared to even step into swimming pools after the movie, the author/conservation campaigner wrote the story more out of respect for the awesome sea creatures than fear.

His widow is quoted as saying by IMDb: "Spielberg certainly made the most superb movie; Peter was very pleased. But Peter kept telling people the book was fiction, it was a novel, and that he no more took responsibility for the fear of sharks than Mario Puzo took responsibility for the Mafia."