Actress Lee Fierro, who played the memorable Mrs. Kintner in the Steven Spielberg horror classic “Jaws,” died Sunday from complications of coronavirus.
She was 91.
Fierro, a longtime resident of Martha’s Vineyard, nailed a key scene in the 1975 shark attack movie when she famously lifted her black veil and slapped Chief Martin Brody across the face.
“You knew there was a shark out there. You knew it was dangerous, but you let people go swimming anyway. You knew all those things,” her character, Mrs. Kintner, said. “My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that.”
Kevin Ryan, artistic director for Island Theatre Workshop, confirmed her death to the Martha’s Vineyard Times. He said Fierro had moved to an assisted living facility in Ohio before she contracted the deadly virus.
During her four decades on Martha’s Vineyard, she taught and mentored more than 1,000 children in theater, he said.
“The one word I would think of when I think of Lee is dedication. I’ve watched her as a performer, director and business woman and then we became friends. She was my teacher and mentor,” Ryan told the newspaper.
“I would still call Lee for artistic discussion and commentary,” he said. “She was fiercely dedicated to the mission of teaching. She, no matter what it was, would stay at it and get the job done.”
Fierro also starred in several roles at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse in Vineyard Haven over the years, the group’s artistic director, MJ Munafo, said
“I loved her, and she was an inspiration to me,” Munafo told the Martha’s Vineyard Times. “She was a huge presence on the Island theater community. She worked with hundreds of young people who just adored her.”
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