Susan Backlinie

Backlinie's appearance in Jaws took three days to shoot, with Backlinie strapped into a harness while the crew struggled to get the desired effects. Backlinie 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 the periscope of a Japanese submarine.  Backlinie also appeared in the 1977 film Day of the Animals, regarded by some as a Jaws clone about nature gone bad.

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.

Originally, the shot of the shark attack in which Backlinie was involved had to be shot several times, because she was unable to produce the intended reaction. Therefore, the next filming day, the attack scene was shot again, only this time, Backlinie was not told when she would be "attacked". When the diver below her grabbed onto and pulled her leg, submerging her, she gave a genuine scared reaction, and the shot was left in the final product, as it was exactly what Spielberg was looking for.