Martha's Vineyard has been packed this weekend as "Jaws" celebrates its 50th anniversary.
The island itself plays a major role in the film, but the actors created unforgettable characters, including Richard Dreyfuss who played Matt Hooper.
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WATCH HEREDreyfuss was in Oak Bluffs on Saturday 50 years after helping to create the Hollywood phenomenon.
"The word that’s most associated in my mind with that film is awaiting," he shared. "We waited all day and all night and all the next day.”
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SIGN UP Dreyfuss and his co-star Jeffrey Kramer signed autographs steps from an Orca lookalike - another star of Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece.
”It changed the way movies are marketed and distributed, and it changed all of our lives. I mean none of us swim the same," Kramer said with a laugh.
Kramer played Lenny Hendricks, the deputy chief of Amity with real-life ties to the Vineyard.
"We had a friend who was an usher, who you would go in every night and when Ben Gardner’s head pops out out of the boat you would see popcorn, fly, and soda fly,” Kramer said.
"I always feel compelled to say we have yet to have a shark attack here on Martha’s Vineyard,” said Oak Bluffs Police Chief Jonathan Searles, who played a young prankster with a fake shark fin alongside his older brother. "I can’t think of a better summer job as an eight-year-old than to go to the beach and be paid $40 a day and they fed you.”
Spielberg was 27 years old and not well known when he directed "Jaws." That was true for Dreyfuss, as well.
"We were uncrowned, but everyone knew we what we were going to have.”
Dreyfuss says the movie has held up over 50 years because it was made by brilliant people.
