By Staff reporter
First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on January 29, 1963
Shark kills actress in shallow cove: fight by fiance
Miss Marcia Hathaway, a well-known Sydney actress, was fatally mauled by a shark in Middle Harbour yesterday afternoon.
The shark attacked her while she was standing in murky water only 30 inches deep and 20 feet from the shore in the northern arm of Sugarloaf Bay.
Seconds before she died, while friends were hurrying her to hospital, Miss Hathaway told her fiance: “I am not in pain. Don’t worry about me, dear. God will look after me.”
Miss Hathaway, 32, of Greenaway Flats, Milson's Point, was on a picnic trip with six friends in a motor cruiser.
When the shark attacked, her fiance, who was beside her, fought the shark with his hands and kicked it as it twisted in the blood-stained water, trying to drag its victim into deep water.
Miss Hathaway died 20 minutes later from her terrible injuries and shock. The shark almost tore off her right leg.
Miss Hathaway's fiance and two other friends were treated at the Mater Misericordia Hospital for shock.
Frederick Knight, Hathaway's fiance, said when the shark attacked he was only a few feet away.
"We had been swimming about in shallow water and I remember telling Marcia not to go out too far," he said.
"Then I heard her scream. She said she thought she had been attacked by an octopus.
"I went to her and tried to drag her from the shark. It seemed like 10 minutes to me while we struggled, but it could only have been a couple of minutes.
"The water was stained with blood and I never thought I would get her away from it. I think at one stage I had my foot in its mouth. It felt soft and spongy.
"I'm not too clear what happened. It happened so fast and I could not see much in the water.
"I tried to reassure Marcia and told her that the shark had just brushed past her.
"But she knew a short time after that she was dying."
Shark victim was "deeply religious girl"
Close associates of Miss Marcia Hathaway last night described her as a brilliant and versatile actress and a "deeply religious person".
She had a successful career on the stage and in radio and television.