A child actor who has starred in the 1975 blockbuster Jaws has become the police chief of the island where he was filmed.
Jonathan Searle had a minor role as one of the jokers who put a fake shark fin in the waters off Amity Island.
Now, 47 years later, he has been appointed chief of police in the Oaks Bluff town of Martha’s Vineyard, an island in Massachusetts, where most of The Jaws were filmed.
Mr. Searle appeared with his brother in Steven Spielberg’s film, which takes place in a fictional city on Long Island.
Starring Roy Scheider as the film’s own police chief, Brody, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfus, he focuses on a great white shark that wreaks havoc among beachgoers.
In a memorable scene, Brody remarks, “I can do anything. I’m the police chief.”
Image: Jaws was shot in Martha’s vineyard. Photo file
Mr. Searle has been in the local office since 1986, writes the Vineyard Gazette.
In 2008, he accused a man of hooliganism for doing what he played in the film – lying and telling beachgoers that he had seen a pair of great whites outside the island.
Mr Surch told the Vineyard Gazette that he was “humble and honored to have been offered the post” as police chief.
“This is something I’ve been working on all my career,” he added.
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