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The cause of death was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive and a fatal scarring of the lungs, said his wife.
Benchley – who was an advocate for the conservation of sharks – came from a literary background. His grandfather was the celebrated humorist Robert Benchley (friend and professional colleague of Dorothy Parker's), and his father, author Nathaniel Benchley.
Peter Benchley was born in New York City in 1940. He attended the elite Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, then graduated from Harvard University in 1961. He worked at The Washington Post and Newsweek and spent two years as a speechwriter for President Lyndon B. Johnson, writing some "difficult" speeches about the Vietnam War, Wendy Benchley told the Associated Press.
The author's interest in sharks began during childhood visits to Nantucket Island in Massachusetts and heightened in the mid-1960s when he read about a fisherman catching a 4,550-pound great white shark off Long Island, the setting for his novel.
"I thought to myself, 'What would happen if one of those came around and wouldn't go away?'" he recalled. Benchley didn't start the novel until 1971 because he was too busy working with his day jobs.
His bestseller prompted a 1975 summer movie that also put its young director, Steven Spielberg, on the map. "Spielberg certainly made the most superb movie … Peter was very pleased," said Wendy Benchley.
Benchley himself was actually at ease around sharks, according to his widow, who recalled a trip they took to Mexico last year when the couple went into the water in a special cage. "They put bait in the water and sharks swim around and play games," she said. "We were thrilled, excited."
Benchley wrote other books, including The Deep and The Island, though neither matched the success of Jaws, in either book or movie form.
He is survived by his wife, three children and five grandchildren.
