10 Actors Who Only Gave Great Performances Because They Got Drunk

3. Robert Shaw - Jaws

It almost wasn't Robert Shaw who got to growl the lines as salty sea-dog Quint in Steven Spielberg's Jaws - original choices for the role included Lee Marvin and Sterling Hayden, both of whom passed (oddly, the much younger Robert Duvall also expressed an interest in the part). Interestingly, Spielberg only appeared to be looking at veteran actors with unfortunate alcohol problems, and next he turned to Robert Shaw, whose issues with alcoholism didn't stop with playing Quint. It was something that by a stroke of luck got played into the movie, as Shaw's insistence on drinking between takes (at one point, co-star Richard Dreyfuss grabbed Shaw's drink and threw it into the sea) led to a source of palpable tension that was perfect for the character. Shaw's drinking did, however, almost cost cinema one of its greatest scenes - whilst shooting the USS Indianapolis monologue, Shaw at first drank real booze, rendering the take unusable. The next day, Shaw apologised to Spielberg and did the speech again in a single take, sober.