SYDNEY, Australia -- Ron Taylor, a beloved Australian marine conservationist who helped film some of the terrifying underwater footage used in the classic shark thriller "Jaws," has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 78.

Close family friend Andrew Fox says Taylor died Sunday after a two-year battle with leukemia.

Fox and his father, famed shark attack survivor Rodney Fox, worked with Taylor on shark conservation efforts for decades.

In 1974, director Steven Spielberg asked Taylor and his wife, Valerie Taylor, to capture footage of a great white shark for "Jaws." Spielberg used Taylor's footage in a now-iconic scene in which the shark in the film tears apart a cage holding one of the main characters.