Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

'Susan Backlinie' (born 'Susan Jane Swindall' on September 1, 1946) is a former actress and stuntwoman best known for playing Chrissie Watkins, the first victim in Steven Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster Jaws. Susan also appeared in Spielberg's film 1941 parodying her role in Jaws. Instead of being attacked by a shark during a midnight swim, she's "picked up" by a Japanese submarine. Backlinie also appeared in the film The Day of the Animals, regarded by some as a Jaws clone about nature gone bad. Along with being a stuntwoman specializing in swimming work, she was also an animal trainer. She currently works as a computer accountant in her birthplace of Ventura, California. When Jaws co-star Richard Dreyfuss saw a daily of her performance of being attacked by the shark, he told her it absolutely terrified him.