Trivia

Marco was allegedly a stunt double for Burt Reynolds who was brutally attacked by a shark in 1967 while shooting an underwater scene near Manzanillo, Mexico, for a film appropriately titled Shark. According to Life Magazine, which did a story in 1968 on the filming, Marco was in the water in scuba gear alongside a subdued bull shark when a great white managed to make it through the nets protecting the area from the rest of the sea. It charged at the camera crew before launching at Marco and disemboweling the actor where he swam. Crew members tried to steer the shark away from Marco with spears, but the animal was undeterred, and the stuntman's resulting injuries were so severe that he later died at a hospital. Producers allegedly used the footage of Marcos' death in the opening scene in the movie, along with publicizing the incident as a marketing push. Director Samuel Fuller unsuccessfully attempted to have his name removed from its credits because he was dissatisfied with the editing of the film. However, a detailed investigation revealed that there was no official record of the attack, no record of a stuntman named Jose Marco, and no hospital records of the incident, although Marco was allegedly in a hospital for two days before he died. LIFE magazine had no comment. See more