Susan Backlinie, the stuntwoman who played the first victim in the 1975 film “Jaws”, has died of a heart attack in California.

Backlinie, who was 77, was a former national competitive swimmer before she began working on stunt scenes and also acted professionally.

For Steven Spielberg’s terrifying film, Jaws, she played a character named Chrissie who left a beach party to go swimming, with fatal consequences when she encountered a great white shark.

 Backlinie was reportedly tethered to the seabed and pushed and pulled back and forth with ropes by a crew of up to ten men to transmit the effect of being attacked in the water.

In interviews, she said she was not warned of her initial submersion to ensure a more “natural response” for the cameras.

In an interview with The Palm Beach Post, she said that Spielberg’s orders at the time were “when your scene is done, I want everyone under the seats with the popcorn and bubble gum.”

“I think we did that,”she said.

She appeared in other films for cinema and television, including  the 1979 war comedy “1941,” made by Spielberg,  in which she played a parody of her shark-attack stunt.

“Jaws” made some 260 million US dollars when it was released in 1975, and secured three Academy awards the following year – it also spawned three sequels.