Over the ensuing decades, Benchley was actively engaged with scientists and filmmakers on expeditions around the world as they expanded their knowledge of sharks.Īlso during this time, there was an unprecedented upswing in the number of sharks killed to make shark-fin soup, and Benchley worked with governments and nonprofits to sound the alarm for shark conservation.

When Peter Benchley wrote Jaws in the early 1970s, he meticulously researched all available data about shark behavior. He died of pulmonary fibrosis in 2006 at the age of 65.

With the success of Jaws, Benchley went on to write, narrate and appear in dozens of television documentaries about marine life. However, his biggest breakthrough came when he wrote Jaws.īenchley’s fascination with sharks began during his childhood, where he spent his summers on Nantucket Island sailing, fishing, swimming and admiring the ocean predators. Marine Corps Reserve before working as a reporter for The Washington Post, a Radio & TV editor for Newsweek, a junior speechwriter for President Lyndon Johnson, and later as a freelance writer. He is notably known for writing the bestselling novel Jaws (1974), which was adapted into a blockbuster movie directed by Steven Spielberg.īorn in New York City, Benchley attended Harvard University and traveled around the world for a year after graduation an experience that inspired his first book Time and a Ticket.īenchley served briefly in the U.S. Peter Bradford Benchley, better known as Peter Benchley, was an American screenwriter, marine conservationist and author of thriller novels.

The Deep by Peter Benchley