Actress Lee Fierro, who played Mrs Kintner in 'Jaws', dies at 91 of coronavirus

Lee Fierro, the actress who memorably played the grieving mother Mrs Kintner in Jaws, has died from complications brought on by coronavirus.

She was 91.

Though a resident of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, where Jaws was filmed, she died at an assisted care facility in Ohio, according to the Martha's Vineyard Times.

In Spielberg's breakthrough movie, Fierro confronted Roy Scheider's Chief Brody in one of the film's most visceral scenes.

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After her young son Alex, played by Jeffrey Voorhees, becomes the second victim of the shark in Amity, she slaps Scheider across the face while still wearing her mourning veil.

“I just found out that a girl got killed here last week and you knew, you knew there was a shark out there. You knew it was dangerous, but you let people go swimming anyway.” she says in the scene.

“You knew all those things and still my boy is dead now, and there’s nothing you can do about it. My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that.”

Fierro reprised her role in Jaws: The Revenge in 1987.

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She was a theatre-trained actress, serving as the artistic director and board president for the Island Theatre Workshop in Martha's Vineyard.

According to the Martha's Vineyard Times, she mentored over 1000 children, and was 'fiercely dedicated' to theatre.

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Kevin Ryan, current artistic director of the theatre company, told the newspaper: “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.

“I would still call Lee for artistic discussion and commentary… She was fiercely dedicated to the mission of teaching. She, no matter what it was, would stay at it and get the job done.”

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