Frank Mundus, 82, shark hunter

Here's t' swimmin' with bald-headed wimmin'.

IT'S UNLIKELY that Frank Mundus ever proposed a toast like that, as did the salty Captain Quint in the iconic 1975 film "Jaws," but there are those, including Mundus himself, who believe the character was modeled after him.

Quint, played by the late Robert Shaw, was a shark hunter who went after - and unhappily was devoured by - a great white shark in the movie.

Mundus was a real-life shark hunter who caught seven great whites in his career, including a 4,500-pounder with a harpoon, and a 3,427-pounder by rod and reel.

And he never even came close to being eaten by one.

Mundus, New Jersey-born and bred and a legendary shark hunter out of Montauk, Long Island, N.Y., died Wednesday of complications of a heart attack he suffered Sept. 6, after returning to his Hawaii home from a fishing trip in Montauk. He was 82.

Mundus, who operated a charter fishing boat out of Montauk for more than 50 years, was once asked if he thought the Quint character had been modeled after him.

"Yes, he was," he said. "He knew how to handle the people the same way I did. He also used similar shark-fishing techniques based on my methods."

Some Montauk old-timers, interviewed by Newsday, said there was no doubt Quint was modeled after Mungus.

"Quint was Frank to a tee," one said. "There's no question about it."

Another said, "If you see the movie and knew Frank, you knew it was him."

Unlike Quint, who delighted in showing off his many scars from his years of shark hunting, Mundus said he had many close calls, but had never been injured catching sharks.

"The only accidents on my boat happened to customers and were not shark-related," he said. "They were two broken ankles and some fish-hooked fingers."

Mundus, who was born in Long Branch, N.J., moved to Montauk in 1951 and began operating a charter fishing boat. Soon, he began specializing in catching sharks and became a Long Island legend.

He and his wife, Jeannette, 46, moved to Hawaii in 1991.

In the 1960s, one of his customers was Peter Benchley, who would later write the novel that "Jaws" was based on. Benchley, who died in 2006, always denied he had based Quint on Mundus, or on any one person.

Mundus didn't think much of the movie.

"It was the funniest and the stupidest movie I've ever seen because too many stupid things happened in it," he once said.

"For instance, no shark can pull a boat backwards at a fast speed with a light line and stern cleats that are only held in there by two bolts.

"And I've never boiled shark jaws. If you do, you'll only end up with a bunch of teeth at the bottom of your bucket because the jaw cartilage melts."

He said the strangest thing he ever found in a shark's stomach was a bunny rabbit.

He also once found a business card - his own.

He had put the card in a can of chum - the bloody mixture dumped in the water to attract sharks - the night before a fishing trip to identify it as his, and the shark ate it.

Mundus was concerned about shark conservation, and pushed the use of less-damaging hook varieties that allow fishermen to catch and release the fish.

He was interviewed frequently on TV, including by David Letterman and Larry King, and is the author of the book about his fishing career,"Fifty Years a Hooker."

Besides his wife, he is survived by three daughters, Patricia Mundus, Barbara Crowley and Theresa Greene.

He requested no funeral and asked to be cremated, his wife said. *