“With the roles I played in those early movies, I found that quite a few people wanted to have a go at me. ; Henry, Ill.; Chillicothe, Mo. Mr. Widmark produced two more films: “The Secret Ways” (1961) in which he went behind the Iron Curtain to bring out an anti-Communist leader; and “The Bedford Incident” (1964), another Cold War drama, in which he played an ultraconservative naval captain trailing a Russian submarine and putting the world in danger of a nuclear catastrophe. Your contribution is much appreciated! And from then on, Widmark worked steadily in radio. Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor and producer. A perforated eardrum kept him out of the service during World War II, but Widmark served as an air raid warden and entertained servicemen under the auspices of the American Theatre Wing. Golden Age actress and singer Rhonda Fleming has died at 97. Birthday: December 26, 1914Date of Death: March 24, 2008Age at Death: 93. In 1991, he made his final screen appearance, as a senator in “True Colors.”. There was something slightly mysterious about his behavior, and you felt a slight unpredictability about him.”, Widmark, Schickel said, later became a much more conventional leading man, but even then his portrayals conveyed “sort of an awareness that the world didn’t always work out for the best, that you had to be somewhat wary of people.”. Richard Widmark, who made a sensational film debut as the giggling killer in Kiss of Death, has died after a long illness. And whenever reporters came to call, they inevitably asked about his role in “Kiss of Death.”. Movie crazy, he was afraid to admit his interest in the “sissy” job of acting. In the 1980s, he worked periodically in films and television, including “Against All Odds” on the big screen in 1984 and “Cold Sassy Tree,” a 1989 television movie in which he played opposite Faye Dunaway as a man who married a younger woman. Me, I love just living,” he said. In 1938, he moved to New York City, where his college sweetheart and future wife, Jean Hazlewood, was studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. While trying to avoid playing more low-life villains, Widmark was offered what he once called “this terrible, awful racist character” in “No Way Out,” the 1950 film that marked the big-screen debut of Poitier as a doctor in a county hospital who must deal with Widmark’s character. Celebrities and Notable People Who Have Had Coronavirus. Growing up, Widmark moved frequently before his family settled in Princeton, Ill., where his father acquired a bakery and the family lived in the apartment above. I remember walking down the street in a small town and this lady coming up and slapping me. Get all the day's most vital news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. Marge Champion, a longtime dancer, Emmy-winning choreographer and motion reference for Disney’s “Snow White,” dies at 101. It broke my heart that I had caused his death.”. From the Archives: Debonair Actor Joseph Cotten Dies at 88, From the Archives: Marilyn Monroe Dies; Pills Blamed, From the Archives: Bette Davis Dies in Paris at 81, From the Archives: Nat ‘King’ Cole dies of cancer at 45, From the Archives: Jack Lemmon, Everyman Star, Dies. As Tommy Udo, a giggling, psychopathic killer in the 1947 gangster film “Kiss of Death,” Mr. Widmark tied up an old woman in a wheelchair (played by Mildred Dunnock) with a cord ripped from a lamp and shoved her down a flight of stairs to her death. “I read a lot, play tennis, work outside, see friends.”, As one of Hollywood’s elder statesmen, Widmark would periodically be asked for interviews in his later years. “I could carry out projects which I liked but the studios didn’t want.”, He added: “The businessmen who run Hollywood today have no self-respect. Richard Widmark in his Manhattan apartment in 2001. The one time he went fishing, he once recalled, “I caught a little trout. Former Arco CEO Lodwrick Cook, who staged one of the zaniest charity telethons in history to rebuild L.A.'s Central Library, has died at 92. As his blonde hair turned grey, Mr. Widmark moved up in rank, playing generals in the nuclear thriller “Twilight’s Last Gleaming” (1977) and “The Swarm” (1978), in which he waged war on bees. Ethel Mae Barr Widmark's information is not available now. Richard Widmark as Harry Fabian in “Night and the City.”. Among the films he produced and starred in were “Time Limit” (1957), directed by Malden; and “The Secret Ways” (1961), a Cold War thriller with a script written by Widmark’s wife, Jean. “It’s a bit rough priding oneself that one isn’t too bad an actor and then finding one’s only remembered for a giggle,” he told one interviewer. He showed his work to John Ford and, two years later, Ford sent Mr. Widmark a finished screenplay.
Asked once if he had been “astute” with his money, he answered, “No, just tight.”, He sold the ranch in 1997 after the death of Ms. Hazelwood, his wife of 55 years. If you see something that doesn't look right on this page, please do inform us using the form below: © 2017 Dead or Kicking / All Rights Reserved. “When I finally came to Hollywood, I thought I was in seventh heaven,” he told The Times in 1987. Widmark died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn., after a long illness, his wife, Susan Blanchard, told The Times on Wednesday. He married Blanchard, a longtime friend who was once married to Henry Fonda, in 1999. “He was a damn good actor,” Malden told The Times. “I could choose the director and my fellow actors,” he said. Indeed, he became so adept at all types of roles that he consistently lent credibility to inferior movies and became an audience favorite over a career that spanned more than half a century.

Rhonda Fleming, an actress and singer who starred opposite such leading men as Kirk Douglas, Burt Lancaster and Ronald Reagan, has died at 97. Bob Biggs, founder of iconic L.A. independent label Slash Records, dies at 74. He was the evil head of a hospital in “Coma” (1978) and a United States Senator in “True Colors” (1991). "After leaving Fox, Widmark's career continued to flourish. There is even a story that Joey Gallo, the New York mobster, was so taken by Mr. Widmark’s performance in “Kiss of Death” that he copied the actor’s natty posture, sadistic smirk and tittering laugh. “I don’t think we’d seen quite that level of anti-social behavior in movies, and he never repeated villainy at that level in the movies,” film critic Richard Schickel told The Times in 2002. He was so embarrassed by the character that after every scene he apologized to the young actor he was required to torment, Sidney Poitier. Within two years after his Fox contract ended, Mr. Widmark had formed a production company and produced “Time Limit” (1957), a serious dissection of possible treason by an American prisoner of war that The New York Times called “sobering, important and exciting.” Directed by the actor Karl Malden, “Time Limit” starred Mr. Widmark as an army colonel who is investigating a major (Richard Basehart) who is suspected of having broken under pressure during the Korean War and aided the enemy. Richard Widmark, who created a villain in his first movie role who was so repellent and frightening that the actor became a star overnight, died Monday … Widmark died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn., after a long illness, his wife, Susan Blanchard, told The Times on Wednesday. Mr. Widmark told The Guardian in 1995 that he had not become a producer to make money but to have greater artistic control. The performance won Mr. Widmark his sole Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actor. I was doing ‘Inner Sanctum’ on radio at the same time, and I remember reading the ‘Kiss of Death’ script to some of the guys and saying, ‘Hey, get a load of this!’ and I’d laugh, it was so funny.”. Tommy Udo made the 32-year-old Mr. Widmark, who had been an established radio actor, an instant movie star, and he spent the next seven years playing a variety of flawed heroes and relentlessly anti-social mobsters in 20th Century Fox’s juiciest melodramas. Then came “Kiss of Death,” which required him to sign a seven-year contract with one-year options with 20th Century Fox. The genesis of “Cheyenne Autumn” was research Mr. Widmark had done at Yale into the suffering of the Cheyenne. Richard Widmark (he had no middle name) was born on Dec. 26, 1914, in Sunrise, Minn., and grew up throughout the Midwest. In his first stage role, he played an Army lieutenant in F. Hugh Herbert’s “Kiss and Tell,” directed by George Abbott. Their project won the 1984 public service award, despite initial skepticism from The Times’ editor. She said that Mr. Widmark had fractured a vertebra in recent months and that his conditioned had worsened.
"A quiet, inordinately shy man, Widmark often portrayed killers, cops and Western gunslingers. Widmark received his only Oscar nomination — as best supporting actor — and he won a Golden Globe as “most promising [male] newcomer” for the role. On a full scholarship at Lake Forest College in Illinois, he played end on the football team, took third place in a state oratory contest, starred in plays and was, once again, senior class president. James Redford, a filmmaker, activist and son of actor Robert Redford, has died of liver cancer at the age of 58. For two years after that picture, you couldn’t get me to smile. In 1943, he made his Broadway debut playing a young Army lieutenant in the comedy “Kiss and Tell.” Roles in other Broadway plays followed, along with his continuing work in radio. Richard Widmark, who created a villain in his first movie role who was so repellent and frightening that the actor became a star overnight, died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn.