Peter Benchley

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Some key takeaways about Peter Benchley are that he was an American author best known for writing the novel Jaws and co-writing the screenplay for the 1975 film adaptation. He came from a family of writers and attended prestigious schools before having a varied career including journalism, speechwriting, and freelance writing before the success of Jaws.

Peter Benchley was born in 1940 to a family of writers. He attended private schools in New England before graduating from Harvard in 1961. After traveling the world for a year, he spent time in the Marine Corps and worked as a journalist for the Washington Post. He married in 1964 and had two children while living in New Jersey and working on freelance writing projects.

Benchley was inspired to write Jaws after reading a news article about a large great white shark caught off Long Island in 1964. The novel was published in 1974 to great success and became a bestseller. Steven Spielberg then adapted it into the blockbuster 1975 film of the same name, for which Benchley co-wrote the screenplay.

Peter Benchley

Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 February 12,


2006) was an American author, best known for his novel
Jaws and its subsequent lm adaptation, the latter cowritten by Benchley (with Carl Gottlieb) and directed
by Steven Spielberg. Several more of his works were
also adapted for cinema, including The Deep, The Island,
Beast, and White Shark.

about pirates, and a novel depicting a man-eating shark


terrorizing a community. This idea had been developed
by Benchley since he had read a news report of a sherman catching a 4,550 pound great white shark o the
coast of Long Island in 1964. The shark novel eventually attracted Doubleday editor Thomas Congdon, who
oered Benchley an advance of $1,000 leading to the
novelist submitting the rst 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 his Pen1 Early life
nington oce, and in the summer in a converted turkey
coop in the Wessons farm in Stonington.[1][3] The idea
He was the son of Marjorie (ne Bradford) and author was inspired by the several great white sharks caught in
Nathaniel Benchley and grandson of Algonquin Round the 1960s o Long Island and Block Island by the MonTable founder Robert Benchley. His younger brother, tauk charterboat captain Frank Mundus.[4]
Nat Benchley, is a writer and actor. Peter Benchley was
Jaws was published in 1974 and became a great success,
an alumnus of The Allen-Stevenson School, Phillips Exstaying on the bestseller list for some 44 weeks. Steven
eter Academy, and Harvard University.
Spielberg has said that he initially found many of the
After graduating from college in 1961, Benchley travelled characters unsympathetic and wanted the shark to win.[5]
around the world for a year. The experience was told in Book critics such as Michael A. Rogers of Rolling Stone
his rst book, a travel memoir titled Time and a Ticket, shared the sentiment but the book struck a chord with
published by Houghton Miin in 1964. Following his readers.
return to America, Benchley spent six months reserve
Benchley co-wrote the screenplay with Carl Gottlieb
duty in the Marine Corps, and then became a reporter for
(along with the uncredited Howard Sackler and John MilThe Washington Post.[1] While dining at an inn in Nanius, who provided the rst draft of the memorable USS Intucket, Benchley met Winifred Wendy Wesson, whom
dianapolis speech) for the Spielberg lm released in 1975.
he dated and then married the following year, 1964. By
Benchley made a cameo appearance as a news reporter
then Benchley was in New York, working as television
on the beach.[6] The lm, starring Roy Scheider, Robert
editor for Newsweek. In 1967 he became a speechwriter
Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss, was released in the sumin the White House for President Lyndon B. Johnson, and
mer season, traditionally considered to be the graveyard
[2]
saw the birth of his daughter Tracy.
season for lms. However, Universal Studios decided to
Once Johnsons term ended in 1969, the Benchleys break tradition by releasing the lm with extensive telemoved out of Washington, and lived in various houses, in- vision advertising. Tautly edited by Verna Fields, feacluding an island o Stonington, Connecticut where son turing an ominous score by John Williams and infused
Clayton was born in 1969. Peter wanted to be near New with such an air of understated menace by director Steven
York, and the family eventually got a house at Pennington, Spielberg that he was hailed as the heir apparent to MasNew Jersey in 1970.[2] Since his home had no space for ter of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock, Jaws became the rst
an oce, Benchley rented a room above a furnace supply lm to gross over $100 million in United States theatrical
company.[3]
rentals. It eventually grossed over $470 million worldwide. George Lucas used a similar strategy in 1977 for
Star Wars which broke the box oce records set by Jaws,
and hence the summer blockbuster was born.[7] The lm
2 Jaws
spawned three sequels, none of which matched the success of the original critically or commercially, two video
By 1971, Benchley was doing various freelance jobs in games, Jaws in 1987 and Jaws Unleashed in 2006; both
his struggle to support his wife and children. During this met with mostly negative critical attention. The lm was
period, when Benchley would later declare he was mak- also adapted into a theme park attraction at Universal Stuing one nal attempt to stay alive as a writer, his lit- dios Florida (in Orlando, Florida and Hollywood), and
erary agent arranged meetings with publishers. Bench- two musicals: JAWS The Musical!, which premiered in
ley would frequently pitch two ideas, a non-ction book
1

WORKS BY BENCHLEY

the summer of 2004 at the Minnesota Fringe Festival; and novel, White Shark, was published in 1994. The story of
Giant Killer Shark: The Musical, which premiered in the a Nazi-created genetically engineered shark/human hysummer of 2006 at the Toronto Fringe Festival.
brid, failed to achieve popular or critical success. It was
Benchley estimated that he earned enough from book also turned into a made-for-television lm titled Creature,
sales, lm rights and magazine/book club syndication to with Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of the New York Times
looks more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than
be able to work independently as a lm writer for ten saying it [8]
any
sh.
Also in 1994, Benchley became the rst per[8]
years.
son to host Discovery Channels Shark Week.

Subsequent career

His reasonably successful second novel, The Deep, is


about a honeymooning couple discovering two sunken
treasures on the Bermuda reefs17th-century Spanish
gold and a fortune in World War Two-era morphine
who are subsequently targeted by a drug syndicate. This
1976 novel is based on Benchleys chance meeting in
Bermuda with diver Teddy Tucker while writing a story
for National Geographic. Benchley co-wrote the screenplay for the 1977 lm release, along with Tracy Keenan
Wynn and an uncredited Tom Mankiewicz. Directed by
Peter Yates and starring Robert Shaw, Nick Nolte and
Jacqueline Bisset, The Deep was a box oce success,
and one of the Top 10 highest grossing lms in the US
in 1977, though its box oce tally fell well short of Jaws.
The Island, published in 1979, was a story of descendants
of 17th century pirates who terrorize pleasure craft in
the Caribbean, leading to the Bermuda Triangle mystery.
Benchley again wrote the screenplay for the lm adaptation. But the lm version of The Island, starring Michael
Caine and co-starring David Warner, failed at the box ofce when released in 1980.

In 1999, the television show Peter Benchleys Amazon was


created, about a group of plane crash survivors in the middle of a vast jungle.
In the last decade of his career, Benchley wrote nonction works about the sea and about sharks advocating
their conservation. Among these was his book entitled
Shark Trouble,[9] which illustrated how hype and news
sensationalism can help undermine the publics need to
understand marine ecosystems and the potential negative consequences as humans interact with it. This work,
which had editions in 2001 and 2003, was written to help
a post-Jaws public to more fully understand the sea in
all its beauty, mystery, and power.[10] It details the ways
in which man seems to have become more of an aggressor in his relationship with sharks, acting out of ignorance
and greed as several of the species become increasingly
threatened by overshing.
Benchley was a member of the National Council of Environmental Defense and a spokesman for its Oceans Program: "[T]he shark in an updated Jaws could not be the
villain; it would have to be written as the victim; for,
worldwide, sharks are much more the oppressed than the
oppressors.[11]
He was also one of the founding board members of the
Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI).

During the 1980s, Benchley wrote three novels that did


not sell as well as his previous works. However, Girl of Benchley died of pulmonary brosis in 2006.[12]
the Sea of Cortez, a beguiling John Steinbeck-type fable
about mans complicated relationship with the sea, was
far and away his best-reviewed book and has attracted
a considerable cult following since its publication. Sea 4 Works by Benchley
of Cortez signposted Benchleys growing interest in ecological issues and anticipated his future role as an im- 4.1 Fiction
passioned and intelligent defender of the importance of
redressing the current imbalance between human activ Jaws (1974)
ities and the marine environment. Q Clearance published in 1986 was written from his experience as a staer
The Deep (1976)
in the Johnson White House. Rummies (a.k.a. Lush),
which appeared in 1989, is a semi-autobiographical work,
The Island (1979)
loosely inspired by the Benchley familys history of alcohol abuse. While the rst half of the novel is a relatively
The Girl of the Sea of Cortez (1982)
straightforward (and harrowing) account of a suburbanites descent into alcoholic hell, the second partwhich
Q Clearance (1986)
takes place at a New Mexico substance abuse clinic
veers o into wildly improbable thriller-type territory.
Rummies (1989)
He returned to nautical themes in 1991s Beast written
Beast (1991)
about a giant squid threatening Bermuda. Beast was
brought to the small screen as a made-for-television lm
White Shark (1994; republished as Creature in 1997)
in 1996, under the slightly altered title The Beast. His next

4.2

Non-ction

Time and a Ticket (1964)


Lifes Tempo on Nantucket (1970)
Ocean Planet: Writings and Images of the Sea (1994)
Shark Trouble: True Stories About Sharks and the
Sea (2001)
Shark!: True Stories and Lessons from the Deep
(2002)
Shark Life: True Stories About Sharks and the Sea
(with Karen Wojtyla) (2005)

4.3

Film

Jaws, 1975 lm adaptation; actor: Interviewer.


The Deep, 1977 lm adaptation
Jaws 2, based on characters from Jaws
The Island, 1980 lm adaptation
Jaws 3-D (a.k.a. Jaws 3), based on characters from
Jaws
Jaws: The Revenge, a fourth lm based on characters
from Jaws

[3] Benchley, Peter (2006). 2: Jaws. Shark Life: True Stories About Sharks & the Sea. New York: Random HouseCollins. pp. 1419. ISBN 0-30-754574-1.
[4] Downie, Robert M. Block Island History of Photography
1870-1960s, page 243, Volume 2, 2008
[5] Dowling, Stephen (February 1, 2004). The book that
spawned a monster. BBC News. Retrieved January 1,
2009.
[6] Internet Movie Database, Jaws cast.
[7] Rise of the blockbuster. BBC News. November 16,
2001. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
[8] Peter Benchley, Contemporary Authors Online, Gale,
2003.
[9] Benchley, Peter: Shark Trouble, p. 9. Random House,
2003.
[10] Benchley, P: Shark Trouble, p. xiii. Random House,
2003.
[11] Make your company a world wide known name with us!".
Theroyalgazette.com. Retrieved August 17, 2012.
[12] Jaws author Peter Benchley dies. BBC News. February
13, 2006. Retrieved August 17, 2012.

7 External links
Peter Benchley at the Shark Research Institute

Dolphin Cove, 1989 TV series

The Peter Benchley Shark Conservation Awards

The Beast, 1996 television lm adaptation

Shark Alliance

Creature, 1998 television lm adaptation

Ocial site

Amazon, 1999 TV series

Peter Benchley at the Internet Movie Database

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, 1994 (actor, as


Frank Crowninshield)

Peter Benchley: Rapture of The Deep

See also
Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916
Publishers Weekly lists of bestselling novels in the
United States

References

[1] Hawtree, Christopher. Peter Benchley: He was fascinated by the sea, but his bestselling novel tapped into a
primeval fear of the deep, The Guardian, February 14,
2006. Accessed February 15, 2011.
[2]

Peter Benchley: Shark Conservationist (LA Times)

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

Peter Benchley Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Benchley?oldid=696140676 Contributors: LA2, Ixfd64, Tschild, Toreau,


Fvw, Naddy, Meelar, JackofOz, Oobopshark, Capitalistroadster, Varlaam, Guybrush, D6, Bender235, Hayabusa future, Ruyn, Chriscf,
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Hydrargyrum, Gaius Cornelius, MosheA, Calsicol, Krakatoa, Mad Max, Tony1, MakeChooChooGoNow, Fallout boy, SmackBot, Bigbluesh, Master Deusoma, Bluebot, DStoykov, Suelymesquita, Anchoress, Scwlong, Ghetto Gandalf, Chlewbot, Dmoon1, Fuhghettaboutit,
NapoleonB, Wizardman, Crouchbk, Michael David, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, Harryboyles, Phsharkey, Slowmover, Redeagle688, Locutus, Hu12, Haitian~enwiki, Dukeprospero, Lahiru k, CmdrObot, Drinibot, Dgw, Tim Long, ShelfSkewed, LeafGreen Ranger, Mrsteed,
Aodhdubh, Otto4711, Tectar, Lord of the Isles, Commasense, Daniel, Mojo Hand, Nick Number, Lmaltier, Tozoku, MetaManFromTomorrow, Yomangani, Modernist, MECU, DuncanHill, TAnthony, MegX, Dmacw6, Bencherlite, Dark Kubrick, GroovySandwich, EagleFan,
DerHexer, Quesotiotyo, Gwern, Rettetast, Johnpacklambert, RockMFR, J.delanoy, Tony360X, Jimmyjawz, Homer Landskirty, Crazy
Monkey Guy, MoChep, Deor, Je G., Bovineboy2008, ALadinN, Tklein27, Rontrigger, Ponyo, Xwizzardx, SieBot, Moonriddengirl, Scarian, WereSpielChequers, Nb1993, Radon210, Derbyborn, Lightmouse, Alex.muller, TubularWorld, Atif.t2, ClueBot, All Hallows Wraith,
Ezzex, Niceguyedc, U669, Eleanorquantier, Tyler, M.O.X, Searcher 1990, Mlas, DumZiBoT, RexxS, Oliver0071, RogDel, TFBCT1,
Addbot, PatriciaCarpenter, -nothingman-, Babyblue111, 29Palms.Marine, LaaknorBot, OlEnglish, Andre Toulon, Arxiloxos, Luckas-bot,
Donfbreed, Comic Book Runner, DavidSpanel, Dolphus9091, , SharkconservationNewEngland, Bmmconn, 49mada, Heslopian, Nietzsche 2, Miss money, FrescoBot, I dream of horses, Tinton5, Ilovereadinggoodbooks, Full-date unlinking bot, Donlammers,
RjwilmsiBot, Burmiester, JawsBrody, ZroBot, Jacksonbaker, Rogersma, Fuddsi, Spicemix, ClueBot NG, Ldavid1985, BattyBot, Soulbust, Khazar2, TDKR Chicago 101, NickKrammes, Rumensz, Greefan443, MagicatthemovieS, Biafra84, InniteBratwurst, KasparBot
and Anonymous: 155

8.2

Images

File:Wikisource-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg License: CC BY-SA 3.0


Contributors: Rei-artur Original artist: Nicholas Moreau

8.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

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