Peter Benchley facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Peter Benchley
Benchley being interviewed about Jaws in "A Look Inside Jaws", produced by Laurent Bouzereau.
Born	Peter Bradford Benchley (1940-05-08)May 8, 1940 New York City, U.S.
Died	February 11, 2006(2006-02-11) (aged 65) Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Author screenwriter ocean activist
Years active	1967–2006
Spouse(s)	Winifred "Wendy" Wesson ​ (m. 1964)​
Parent(s)	Marjorie Bradford Nathaniel Benchley
Relatives	Robert Benchley (grandfather) Nat Benchley (brother)

Peter Bradford Benchley (born May 8, 1940 – died February 11, 2006) was an American writer, movie script writer, and someone who worked to protect the ocean. He is famous for his very popular book Jaws. He also helped write the movie script for the film version of Jaws.

Many of his other books were also made into movies or TV shows. These include The Deep, The Island, Beast, and White Shark.

Later in his life, Peter Benchley felt some regret about how he wrote about sharks. He thought his stories made people more afraid of sharks and spread wrong ideas about them. Because of this, he became a strong supporter of marine conservation, which means protecting the ocean and its creatures. It is important to know that Benchley did not believe his books caused sharks to disappear, and there is no proof that Jaws or his other works led to sharks being overfished.

Early Life and First Book

Peter Benchley was the son of Marjorie Benchley and the author Nathaniel Benchley. His grandfather was Robert Benchley, who helped start the famous Algonquin Round Table group of writers. Peter's younger brother, Nat Benchley, is also a writer and actor. Peter Benchley went to the Allen-Stevenson School, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Harvard University.

After finishing college in 1961, Benchley traveled around the world for a year. He wrote about his adventures in his first book, a travel story called Time and a Ticket, which came out in 1964. When he came back to America, Benchley served six months in the Marine Corps reserves. Then, he became a reporter for The Washington Post newspaper.

While eating at an inn in Nantucket, Benchley met Winifred "Wendy" Wesson. They started dating and got married in 1964. By then, Benchley was in New York, working as a TV editor for Newsweek magazine. In 1967, he became a speechwriter for President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House. During this time, his daughter Tracy was born.

When President Johnson's time in office ended in 1969, the Benchley family moved out of Washington. They lived in different places, including an island near Stonington, Connecticut, where their son Clayton was born in 1969. Benchley wanted to be close to New York City, so the family eventually bought a house in Pennington, New Jersey, in 1970. Since his home did not have space for an office, Benchley rented a room above a company that sold furnace parts.

The Story of Jaws

By 1971, Peter Benchley was working many different freelance jobs to support his family. He later said he was "making one final attempt to stay alive as a writer." During this time, his literary agent helped him meet with publishers. Benchley often suggested two ideas: a non-fiction book about pirates, or a novel about a giant shark attacking a town.

He had thought about the shark idea since 1964. That year, he read a news report about a fisherman who caught a huge great white shark (weighing about 2,063 kilograms or 4,550 pounds) off the coast of Long Island. The shark novel caught the attention of Doubleday editor Thomas Congdon. He offered Benchley $1,000 to start writing, and Benchley sent in the first 100 pages. However, much of the work had to be rewritten because the publisher did not like the first version. Benchley worked in his Pennington office during the winter and in a converted chicken coop on his wife's family farm in Stonington during the summer. The idea for the book was also inspired by several great white sharks caught in the 1960s by Captain Frank Mundus near Long Island and Block Island.

Jaws was published in 1974 and became a huge hit. It stayed on the bestseller list for 44 weeks. Steven Spielberg, who directed the Jaws movie, said he first thought many of the book's characters were not very likable and wanted the shark to win. Some book critics, like Michael A. Rogers from Rolling Stone, agreed. But readers loved the book.

Benchley helped write the movie script for the Spielberg film, which came out in 1975. He worked with Carl Gottlieb and also got help from Howard Sackler and John Milius, who wrote an early version of a speech about the USS Indianapolis. Benchley even had a small acting part in the movie as a news reporter on the beach.

The movie, starring Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss, was released in the summer. Back then, summer was usually a bad time for movies. But Universal Studios decided to try something new by releasing the film with a lot of TV advertising. It ended up making over $470 million worldwide. George Lucas used a similar plan in 1977 for Star Wars, which then broke the box office records set by Jaws. This is how the summer blockbuster movie was born.

Later Books and Ocean Work

Peter Benchley's second novel, The Deep, came out in 1976. He got the idea after meeting a diver named Teddy Tucker in Bermuda while writing a story for National Geographic. Benchley visited the wreck of the Constellation ship. He helped write the movie script for the 1977 film version of The Deep. The movie was directed by Peter Yates and starred Robert Shaw, Nick Nolte, and Jacqueline Bisset. The Deep was a success at the box office and one of the top 10 highest-earning films in the U.S. in 1977. However, it did not make as much money as Jaws. The film also led to some new technical achievements and was nominated for a Best Sound Oscar in 1978.

The Island, published in 1979, was a story about the descendants of 17th-century pirates who attacked boats in the Caribbean. This led to the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. Benchley also wrote the script for the movie version. But the film The Island, starring Michael Caine and David Warner, did not do well at the box office when it was released in 1980.

During the 1980s, Benchley wrote three more novels. While they did not sell as well as his earlier books, one of them was Girl of the Sea of Cortez. This story was inspired by John Steinbeck's The Log from the Sea of Cortez. Benchley's book about a girl's special connection with the sea was his most praised book and has become a favorite for many people. Sea of Cortez showed Benchley's growing interest in protecting nature. It also hinted at his future role as a passionate supporter of keeping the ocean healthy. Another book, Q Clearance, published in 1986, was based on his time working for President Lyndon B. Johnson in the White House.

He returned to ocean themes in 1991 with Beast, a book about a giant squid threatening Bermuda. Beast was made into a TV movie in 1996, called The Beast. His next novel, White Shark, came out in 1994. This story about a shark-human creature created by Nazis did not become very popular or get good reviews. It was also made into a TV movie called Creature. In 1994, Benchley became the first person to host Discovery Channel's Shark Week.

In 1999, a TV show called Peter Benchley's Amazon was created. It was about a group of people who survived a plane crash in a huge jungle.

In the last ten years of his career, Benchley wrote non-fiction books about the sea and sharks. He strongly supported protecting them. One of these books was Shark Trouble. It showed how exciting news stories can make it harder for people to understand ocean life and the problems that happen when humans interact with it. This book, which had new versions in 2001 and 2003, was written to help people after Jaws to better understand "the sea in all its beauty, mystery and power." It explains how humans seem to have become more aggressive towards sharks, acting out of not knowing enough and wanting too much. This has caused several shark species to be in danger from too much fishing.

Benchley was a member of the National Council of Environmental Defense and spoke for their Oceans Program. He once said, "the shark in an updated Jaws could not be the villain; it would have to be written as the victim; for, worldwide, sharks are much more the oppressed than the oppressors." This means he felt sharks were more often the ones being harmed than the ones doing harm.

He also helped start the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI).

Peter Benchley passed away in 2006 from a lung illness called pulmonary fibrosis.

Peter Benchley's Legacy

Because of Peter Benchley's lifelong work in protecting sharks and teaching people about them, the Peter Benchley Ocean Awards were created by his wife, Wendy Benchley, and David Helvarg. These awards continue his important work.

In 2015, scientists found a new type of lanternshark off the Pacific coast of South America. They named it Etmopterus benchleyi after him. The lead researcher, Vicki Vásquez, said they chose the name because of Benchley's work in promoting ocean conservation, especially for sharks.

Peter Benchley's Works

Fiction Books

• Jaws (1974)
• The Deep (1976)
• The Island (1979)
• The Girl of the Sea of Cortez (1982)
• Q Clearance (1986)
• Rummies (1989)
• Beast (1991)
• White Shark (1994; republished as Creature in 1997)

Non-fiction Books

• Time and a Ticket (1964)
• Life's Tempo on Nantucket (1970)
• Ocean Planet: Writings and Images of the Sea (1994)
• Shark Trouble: True Stories About Sharks and the Sea (2001)
• Shark!: True Stories and Lessons from the Deep (2002)
• Shark Life: True Stories About Sharks and the Sea (with Karen Wojtyla) (2005)

Movies and TV Shows

• Jaws, 1975 film adaptation; he acted as an Interviewer.
• The Deep, 1977 film adaptation; he acted as a Mate (uncredited).
• Jaws 2, based on characters from Jaws.
• The Island, 1980 film adaptation.
• Jaws 3-D (also known as Jaws 3), based on characters from Jaws.
• Jaws: The Revenge, a fourth film based on characters from Jaws.
• Dolphin Cove, 1989 TV series.
• The Beast, 1996 television film adaptation.
• Creature, 1998 television film adaptation.
• Amazon, 1999 TV series.
• Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, 1994; he acted as Frank Crowninshield.

See also

In Spanish: Peter Benchley para niños

• Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916
• Publishers Weekly lists of bestselling novels in the United States