Richard Widmark

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Richard Widmark

Image:Kissofdeath.jpg
Richard Widmark in Kiss of Death

Born

December 26 1914 (age 94)
Sunrise Township, Minnesota

Years active

1947-1992

Spouse(s)

Jean Hazlewood (1942-1997)
Susan Blanchard (1999-)

Awards
Golden Globe Awards
Most Promising Newcomer - Male 1948 Kiss of Death

Richard Widmark (born December 26, 1914) is an Academy Award-nominated American film actor.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Widmark has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6800 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2002, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

1 Biography
2 Personal life
3 Filmography
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Widmark grew up in Princeton, Illinois, and attended Lake Forest College, where he studied acting. He taught acting at the college after graduation, before debuting on radio in 1938 in Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories. He appeared on Broadway in 1943 in Kiss and Tell. He was unable to join the military during World War II because of a perforated eardrum.

Widmark's first movie appearance was in 1947's Kiss of Death, as the giggling, sociopathic villain Tommy Udo. His most notorious scene in the film found Udo pushing a wheelchair-bound old woman (played by Mildred Dunnock) down a flight of stairs to her death. Kiss of Death was a commercial and critical success, and started Widmark's seven-year contract with 20th Century Fox. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won the Golden Globe Award in 1947 as 'Most Promising Newcomer' for his role. Widmark's character was also the inspiration for the song, "The Ballad of Tommy Udo", by the band Kaleidoscope.

In 1950, Widmark co-starred with Paul Douglas, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jack Palance and Zero Mostel in Elia Kazan's Panic in the Streets, and with Gene Tierney in Jules Dassin's Night and the City, which are considered classic examples of film noir. Two years later, in 1952, Widmark had his handprints cast in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. During his stint at Fox, he appeared in The Street with No Name and Don't Bother to Knock with Marilyn Monroe among other projects. His later filmography includes Vincente Minnelli's 1955 cult film The Cobweb with Lauren Bacall.

[edit] Personal life

Widmark was married to his first wife, Jean Hazlewood, a writer, for almost 55 years, from April 5, 1942 until her death on March 2, 1997. Their daughter, Anne Heath Widmark, an artist and author, married baseball legend Sandy Koufax on January 1, 1969 (but divorced in 1982). In September 1999, Widmark married Susan Blanchard, who earlier was Henry Fonda's third wife. Now retired, Widmark resides in Roxbury, Connecticut, where he has lived since the 1950s.