A man who as a child had a brief but key role in Jaws has been named police chief on the Massachusetts island where the 1975 film was partially filmed.

Jonathan Searle was offered the job of police chief in Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard last week.

“I’m clearly elated and and I’m humbled and honoured to have been offered the position,” Mr Searle, currently a sergeant with Edgartown police, told the Vineyard Gazette, which first reported the appointment.

The film centres on the efforts of a police chief in a fictional resort town trying to rid the local waters of a killer shark.

Scenes were filmed in various locations on Martha’s Vineyard.

In the film, Mr Searle played one of two boys who send beachgoers into a panic by swimming around with a fake shark’s fin.

Mr Searle, whose father was police chief in Edgartown, takes over in Oak Bluffs next month.