Lee Fierro has passed away, and while you may not know her by name there's a good chance you recognize her. She only had three screen acting credits to her name, but the fact that she earned the first of those credits in one of the biggest and best movies of all time has ensured that she was an actress who will always be remembered.
The movie was JAWS, and Fierro played the role of Amity Island local Mrs. Kintner, the mother of Alex Kintner, a young boy who gets eaten by the shark. She had a standout moment in which she confronts Amity Island's Chief of Police Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) over the fact that her son's death could have been avoided if the island's beaches had been closed after a previous shark attack.
I just found out that a girl got killed here last week and you knew it. 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, but 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."
Mrs. Kintner slaps Brody in the scene, and director Steven Spielberg shot seventeen takes of that moment – meaning Fierro had to slap Scheider seventeen times.
Fierro landed the role in JAWS because she lived on Martha's Vineyard, the Massachusetts island where the film was shot. She was a Martha's Vineyard resident for more than forty years, and during her time there she was heavily involved with the Island Theatre Workshop, where she was artistic director for over twenty-five years. During her time at the Workshop, she is believed to have taught and mentored more than one thousand children in theater.
The actress's other screen acting credits came in JAWS: THE REVENGE, where she reprised the role of Mrs. Kintner, and the 2016 drama THE MISTOVER TALE.
Fierro left Martha's Vineyard in 2017 to be closer to family in Ohio. She was living in an assisted living facility there when she contracted COVID-19 and passed away due to complications from the virus. She was 91 years old.
Fierro is survived by her five children, seven grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
Our sincere condolences go out to her family, friends, and fans.