Legend Richard Widmark Dies
Richard Widmark, who shot to Hollywood stardom and a 40-movie career with his first screen role – as a giggling killer in the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death – has died after a lengthy illness.
He was 93.
Widmark's wife, Susan Blanchard, said the Midwestern-born actor died at his Roxbury, Conn., home on Monday, the Associated Press reports. No further details were provided.
"It was a big shock, but he was 93," she said.
After graduating Lake Forest College in Chicago, Widmark became a radio actor and then appeared on Broadway before going Hollywood – and earning a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his movie debut as the psychotic Tommy Udo, who took delight in killing little old ladies.
He then branched out into other genres, including romances and even comedies, before riding to glory in such Westerns as John Wayne's 1960 The Alamo and director John Ford's 1961 Two Rode Together. Among his later roles was the murder victim in the 1974 all-star Murder on the Orient Express.
The handsome, laconic actor even dabbled, though infrequently, on TV, including a memorable 1955 episode of I Love Lucy in which Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), ordered off a Hollywood tour bus, ends up stranded in Widmark's backyard.
Madigan, a 1968 movie starring Widmark as a loner detective, was adapted into a TV series that ran from 1972-73.
Widmark's first marriage, to writer Jean Hazelwood, lasted from 1942 until her death in 1997. He and Blanchard married in 1999 and divided their time between a horse ranch in Hidden Valley, Calif., and a farm in Connecticut.
She survives him, as does Widmark's daughter from his first marriage, Ann Heath Widmark, who, from 1969 until their divorce in 1982, was married to baseball immortal Sandy Koufax, of the Brooklyn (and, later, Los Angeles) Dodgers.
Boston: Actor Richard Widmark, who earned an Oscar nomination playing a psychopath in 1947's film noir Kiss of Death, has died aged 93, a medical official in his home state of Connecticut said on Wednesday.
Widmark was blond and slightly built during his prime and brought an edgy nervousness to the outcasts and heavies he played in Hollywood's film noir heyday – a list of roles that The New York Times once described as a "gallery of reprobates."
Widmark's most memorable role may have been his first. As Tommy Udo, he gleefully pushed a wheelchair-bound woman down a flight of stairs in Kiss of Death with a maniacal laugh that made a lasting impression on moviegoers. Widmark would go on to prove he could play a wide range of characters in more than 60 movies, but the Udo role earned him his only Oscar nomination.
"One will remember that nasty little creep with the wild eyes and high-pitched laugh, neurotic to the core, which Richard Widmark has turned into one of his finest roles," Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton wrote in A Panorama of American Film Noir 1941-1953.
'When in doubt, I'd laugh'
Widmark told an interviewer that the laugh was born of nervousness. "When in doubt, I'd laugh," he said.
"And since this was my first picture and the mechanics of picture-making were new to me, I laughed a lot ... And then, too, part of the laugh came from the fact that I've always had a goofy laugh."
"The first time I met (John) Wayne, I had just made the film Kiss of Death," Widmark once said, "And Wayne was standing with a drink in his hand and said, 'Well, here comes that laughing son of a bitch!'"
Widmark's emergence came during what became Hollywood's classic film noir (French for "black film") era in the 1940s and '50s.
The moody black-and-white films typically featured cynical detectives, femmes fatales, criminals and social misfits in seamy circumstances.
"Hoods are good parts because they're always flashy and attract attention," Widmark once said.
Widmark was born in Sunrise, Minnesota, on December 26, 1914, and grew up throughout the Midwest.
He was 93.
Widmark's wife, Susan Blanchard, said the Midwestern-born actor died at his Roxbury, Conn., home on Monday, the Associated Press reports. No further details were provided.
"It was a big shock, but he was 93," she said.
After graduating Lake Forest College in Chicago, Widmark became a radio actor and then appeared on Broadway before going Hollywood – and earning a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his movie debut as the psychotic Tommy Udo, who took delight in killing little old ladies.
He then branched out into other genres, including romances and even comedies, before riding to glory in such Westerns as John Wayne's 1960 The Alamo and director John Ford's 1961 Two Rode Together. Among his later roles was the murder victim in the 1974 all-star Murder on the Orient Express.
The handsome, laconic actor even dabbled, though infrequently, on TV, including a memorable 1955 episode of I Love Lucy in which Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), ordered off a Hollywood tour bus, ends up stranded in Widmark's backyard.
Madigan, a 1968 movie starring Widmark as a loner detective, was adapted into a TV series that ran from 1972-73.
Widmark's first marriage, to writer Jean Hazelwood, lasted from 1942 until her death in 1997. He and Blanchard married in 1999 and divided their time between a horse ranch in Hidden Valley, Calif., and a farm in Connecticut.
She survives him, as does Widmark's daughter from his first marriage, Ann Heath Widmark, who, from 1969 until their divorce in 1982, was married to baseball immortal Sandy Koufax, of the Brooklyn (and, later, Los Angeles) Dodgers.
Boston: Actor Richard Widmark, who earned an Oscar nomination playing a psychopath in 1947's film noir Kiss of Death, has died aged 93, a medical official in his home state of Connecticut said on Wednesday.
Widmark was blond and slightly built during his prime and brought an edgy nervousness to the outcasts and heavies he played in Hollywood's film noir heyday – a list of roles that The New York Times once described as a "gallery of reprobates."
Widmark's most memorable role may have been his first. As Tommy Udo, he gleefully pushed a wheelchair-bound woman down a flight of stairs in Kiss of Death with a maniacal laugh that made a lasting impression on moviegoers. Widmark would go on to prove he could play a wide range of characters in more than 60 movies, but the Udo role earned him his only Oscar nomination.
"One will remember that nasty little creep with the wild eyes and high-pitched laugh, neurotic to the core, which Richard Widmark has turned into one of his finest roles," Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton wrote in A Panorama of American Film Noir 1941-1953.
'When in doubt, I'd laugh'
Widmark told an interviewer that the laugh was born of nervousness. "When in doubt, I'd laugh," he said.
"And since this was my first picture and the mechanics of picture-making were new to me, I laughed a lot ... And then, too, part of the laugh came from the fact that I've always had a goofy laugh."
"The first time I met (John) Wayne, I had just made the film Kiss of Death," Widmark once said, "And Wayne was standing with a drink in his hand and said, 'Well, here comes that laughing son of a bitch!'"
Widmark's emergence came during what became Hollywood's classic film noir (French for "black film") era in the 1940s and '50s.
The moody black-and-white films typically featured cynical detectives, femmes fatales, criminals and social misfits in seamy circumstances.
"Hoods are good parts because they're always flashy and attract attention," Widmark once said.
Widmark was born in Sunrise, Minnesota, on December 26, 1914, and grew up throughout the Midwest.