PORT LINCOLN, Australia -- In 1963, Australian angler Rodney Fox narrowly survived the most horrific nonfatal shark attack on record after a great white shark bit him almost in half during a spearfishing competition. Hauled into a dinghy barely alive, Fox was rushed to a hospital in Adelaide, capital of the state of South Australia, where surgeons needed 462 stitches to put him back together again.
The attack put Fox on the road to stardom -- and revenge. While filming the 1971 documentary "Blue Water, White Death," one of 70 shark films he has worked on over the years (including the 1975 cult classic "Jaws"), he dispatched any shark that crossed his path with an explosive-tipped speargun. Yet the more time Fox spent underwater observing sharks, the more he grew to respect them, eventually becoming one of their most vociferous defenders.
