1. Quint (Jaws)
In 1964, Peter Benchley read a news articles about a fisherman who caught a great white shark off the coast of Long Island, NY. He then promptly forgot about it until 1971 when discussing novel ideas with a publisher. In 1974,
Jaws was published. Soon after a couple of Hollywood producers discovered it and promptly gave it to a young Steven Spielberg, fresh off of his directorial debut, and the rest is movie history. In writing the character of ornery boat captain/shark hunter Quint, Benchley (and later screenwriter Carl Gottlieb) revisited the true life escapades of Frank Mundus. Gottlieb stated he even read Mundus book
Sportfishing for Sharks as research. Like Mundus, Quint was well known off the northeast coast for his fishing exploits and his eccentric personality. When asked about whether or not Quint was based on him, he answered, Yes, he was. He knew how to handle the people the same way I did. He also used similar shark fishing techniques based on my methods. The only difference was that I used hand held harpoons and I never boiled shark jaws. Mundus also did not serve on the
USS Indianapolis and that famous monologue was written by actor Robert Shaw (who played Quint) and uncredited screenwriters Howard Sackler and John Milius (who also wrote
Dirty Harry).