'Jaws 'Actress Lorraine Gary Admits She Had a 'Mad Crush' on Costar Robert Shaw (Exclusive)

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Lorraine Gary played Ellen Brody in the 1975 thriller Jaws
In a new interview with PEOPLE for the film's 50th anniversary, the actress admits she had a "mad crush" on costar Robert Shaw
Gary also remembers director Steven Spielberg having nerves while helming his first big filmEllen Brody may have been married to the police chief in Jaws, but in real life, she was much more interested in Quint.
"I had a mad crush on Robert Shaw," Lorraine Gary, who played Ellen, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. Shaw portrayed Quint, the hardened hunter tasked with taking down the shark terrorizing Amity Island in the 1975 thriller.
"Now for me, he was more than a gorgeous actor," she continues. "He was a playwright, he was an intellectual, he was a lovely, lovely human being. And yes, that was thrilling."
Shaw died in 1978 at the age of 51 of a heart attack, three years after the release of Jaws.
"We only had three days together in the Vineyard, and that's when I began to know him," Gary recalls, referencing Matha's Vineyard, where the film was primarily shot. "But when we came back to California and the film was still shooting at Universal, we had dinner first at a restaurant with Robert."
"My son Billy opened the door and let him in, and Robert said, 'Hello, poxy!' In other words, 'You've got chicken pox.' And [Billy] at the point had no fever, no spots, nothing. But having had so many kids, he recognized the symptoms of someone who was coming down with it."
She adds, "He had, like, 12 children!"
Gary, 88, retired from acting in 1979 after starring in Steven Spielberg's 1941. She reprised her role as Ellen once more for the final Jaws movie in 1987, Jaws: The Revenge.
Jaws was the first Spielberg movie Gary starred in. Her husband, Sid Sheinberg, the head of Universal at the time, is credited with discovering the fledgling director.
Gary recalls her husband first told her Universal was producing Jaws, and her agent put her up for the role with no audition.
"Steven knew my work, and he liked my work and that was it," she says.
Jaws was famously shot on-location in the Atlantic Ocean and went 100 days over schedule, causing Spielberg to think his career as a filmmaker was "over."
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"Steven's a very human guy, and of course he was nervous," Gary says. "I'm sure he was scared that he'd be pulled from this first big movie, but he was confident in his own work. What he wasn't confident in was the building of the shark, until it finally worked several times after failing and working on the ocean, which was an enormous risk and caused a lot of the delay."
The mechanical shark frequently malfunctioned in the water, delaying the production process.
But Gary adds that her husband was confident the risk would pay off.
"It was Sid that decided to spend the extra money to bet on Steven's talent. He knew this was going to be a very big movie, and it was Sid's idea to open huge in 400 theaters, which was generally not done," she shares. "And he's the man you can blame for the summer blockbusters! I blame him for that too. I don't like most of those other movies, but I did like Jaws."
For more on Jaws, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.
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