Richard Widmark | |
|---|---|
 Widmark as Max Brock, 1973 | |
| Born | Richard Weedt Widmark (1914-12-26)December 26, 1914 |
| Died | March 24, 2008(2008-03-24) (aged 93) Roxbury, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Lake Forest College (B.A., 1936) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1938–2001 |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
Richard Weedt Widmark (December 26, 1914 – March 24, 2008) was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer.
He was nominated for anAcademy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film,Kiss of Death (1947), for which he also won theGolden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Early in his career, Widmark was typecast in similar villainous oranti-hero roles infilms noir, but he later branched out into more heroic leading and supporting roles in Westerns, mainstream dramas, and horror films among others.
Widmark was born December 26, 1914, inSunrise Township, Minnesota,[1] the son of Ethel Mae (née Barr) and Carl Henry Widmark.[2] His father, a traveling salesman, was of Swedish descent, and his mother was of English and Scottish ancestry.[3] Widmark grew up inPrinceton, Illinois, and lived inHenry, Illinois, for a short time, moving frequently because of his father's work.[4] He earned aBachelor of Arts inspeech atLake Forest College in 1936, both studying acting and teaching it there after graduating.[5] The Army turned him down during World War II because of a perforated ear drum.[4]
Widmark made his performing debut as a radio actor in 1938 onAunt Jenny's Real Life Stories. In 1941 and 1942, he was heard daily on theMutual Broadcasting System in the title role of the daytime serialFront Page Farrell, introduced each afternoon as "the exciting, unforgettable radio drama... the story of a crack newspaperman and his wife, the story of David and Sally Farrell." Farrell was a top reporter for theBrooklyn Eagle. When the series moved to NBC, Widmark turned the role toCarleton G. Young andStaats Cotsworth.
During the 1940s, Widmark was also heard on such network radio programs asGang Busters,The Shadow,Inner Sanctum Mysteries,Joyce Jordan, M.D.,Molle Mystery Theater,Suspense, andEthel and Albert. In 1952, he portrayedCincinnatus Shryock in an episode ofCavalcade of America titled "Adventure on the Kentucky".[6] He returned to radio drama decades later, performing onCBS Radio Mystery Theater (1974–82), and was also one of the five hosts onSears Radio Theater (as the Friday "adventure night" host) during 1979-1980.
Widmark appeared on Broadway in 1943 inF. Hugh Herbert'sKiss and Tell and inWilliam Saroyan'sGet Away Old Man, directed byGeorge Abbott, which ran for 13 performances. He was in Chicago appearing in a stage production ofDream Girl withJune Havoc when20th Century Fox signed him to a seven-year contract.[7]
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Widmark's first movie appearance was in the 1947film noirKiss of Death, as the giggling, sociopathic villain Tommy Udo.[8] In his most notorious scene, Udo pushed a woman in a wheelchair (played byMildred Dunnock) down a flight of stairs to her death.[4] Widmark was almost not cast. He said, "The director,Henry Hathaway, didn't want me. I have a high forehead; he thought I looked too intellectual." Hathaway was overruled by studio bossDarryl F. Zanuck. "Hathaway gave me kind of a bad time," recalled Widmark.[7]Kiss of Death was a commercial and critical success: Widmark won theGolden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actor, and was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.[8]
Widmark followedKiss of Death with other villainous performances in the films noirThe Street with No Name andRoad House, and theWesternYellow Sky (all 1948), the latter film withGregory Peck andAnne Baxter. Another standout villainous role was in the racial melodramaNo Way Out (1950), withSidney Poitier in his film debut. Widmark and Poitier became good friends and worked in a number of films together in later years.
Widmark played heroic roles in films, includingDown to the Sea in Ships,Slattery's Hurricane (both 1949), andElia Kazan'sPanic in the Streets (1950). His role as first mate Lunceford in the whaling movieDown to the Sea in Ships was his first starring role as the principal hero. His next starring role was in the 1951 WWII drama,Frogmen. This movie is cited by many Navy Seals as the reason they joined the Navy.[9]
He also featured inHalls of Montezuma (1951) andDon't Bother to Knock (1952) (withMarilyn Monroe), and appeared in two films for directorSamuel Fuller: the noirPickup on South Street (1953) andCold WardramaHell and High Water (1954).
Widmark was a mystery guest on the CBS quiz showWhat's My Line? in 1954. The following year, he made a rare foray into comedy onI Love Lucy, portraying himself when a starstruck Lucy trespasses onto his property to steal a souvenir. Widmark finds Lucy sprawled out on his living room floor underneath a bearskin rug.
Widmark continued to appear in a number of successful films, includingThe Tunnel of Love (1959) withDoris Day, the WesternsWarlock (also 1959) withHenry Fonda, asJim Bowie inJohn Wayne'sThe Alamo (1960), the courtroom dramaJudgment at Nuremberg (1961), and reuniting with Sidney Poitier in the adventureThe Long Ships (1964).
Widmark produced and starred in the filmsTime Limit (1957),The Secret Ways (1961) — based on a novel byAlistair MacLean, which Widmark also directed (uncredited) due to clashes with original directorPhil Karlson's proposed tongue-in-cheek direction of the screenplay[10] — andThe Bedford Incident (1965), his third film with Sidney Poitier and loosely based on theHerman Melville novelMoby Dick.
Widmark received anEmmy Award nomination for his performance as Paul Roudebush, the president of the United States, in the TV movieVanished! (1971), aFletcher Knebel political thriller. In 1972, he reprised his detective role fromDon Siegel'sMadigan (1968) with six 90-minute episodes on theNBC Wednesday Mystery Movie. He performed in a mini-series aboutBenjamin Franklin, broadcast in 1974, which was a unique experiment of four 90-minute dramas, each with a different actor impersonating Franklin: Widmark,Beau Bridges,Eddie Albert,Melvyn Douglas, andWillie Aames who portrayed Franklin at age 12. The series won a Peabody Award and five Emmys.
Widmark began to drift into supporting roles, though he still played the occasional lead, for instance in the 1976 British-West German filmTo the Devil a Daughter. He was part of an all-star cast in the 1974 filmMurder on the Orient Express (playing the murder victim), the 1977 filmRollercoaster (as an FBI agent), andThe Swarm (1978). He had a prominent supporting role inMichael Crichton'sComa (1978) withGeneviève Bujold andMichael Douglas, and portrayedAl Sieber in the TV movieMr. Horn (1979).
Widmark continued to appear in a number of films during the 1980s, again with Sidney Poitier who directed him in the comedyHanky Panky (1982), withGene Wilder. He also featured in the political thrillerWho Dares Wins (1982), andAgainst All Odds (1984), withJeff Bridges andJames Woods. His last television role was in the critically acclaimed TNT adaptation ofCold Sassy Tree (1989) alongsideFaye Dunaway.
In all, Widmark appeared in more than 60 films, making his final appearance in the 1991 dramaTrue Colors.[1]
In an interview withMichael Shelden in 2002, Widmark complained that "movie-making has lost a lot of its magic". He thought it had become "mostly a mechanical process...All they want to do is move the camera around like it was on a rollercoaster. A great director likeJohn Ford knew how to handle it. Ford didn't move the camera, he moved the people".[11]
Widmark was married to screenwriter Ora Jean Hazlewood for 55 years from 1942 until her death fromAlzheimer's disease in March 1997; they met while attendingLake Forest College. The couple had one daughter, Anne Heath Widmark, an artist and author who was married to Baseball Hall of FamerSandy Koufax from 1969 to 1982.[4] Widmark named his film production company, Heath Productions, after his daughter.[12]
In 1999, Widmark remarried to socialiteSusan Blanchard, the daughter ofDorothy Hammerstein and stepdaughter ofOscar Hammerstein II; she had beenHenry Fonda's third wife.[4]
Despite having spent a substantial part of his career appearing in gun-toting roles such as cowboys, police officers, gangsters and soldiers, Widmark disliked firearms and was involved in several gun-control initiatives. In 1976, he stated:
I know I've made kind of a half-assed career out of violence, but I abhor violence. I am an ardent supporter of gun control. It seems incredible to me that the United States is the only civilized nation that does not put some effective control on guns.[13]
Widmark was a lifelong member of theDemocratic Party.[4]
Widmark died after a long illness on March 24, 2008, at his home inRoxbury, Connecticut, at the age of 93.[14][15] His failing health in his final years was aggravated by a fall he suffered in 2007. He was buried at Roxbury Center Cemetery.[4][16]
For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Widmark has a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame at 6800 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2002, he was inducted into theWestern Performers Hall of Fame at theNational Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum inOklahoma City.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | Kiss of Death | Tommy Udo | Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor |
| 1948 | The Street with No Name | Alec Stiles | |
| Road House | Jefferson T. "Jefty" Robbins | ||
| Yellow Sky | Dude | ||
| 1949 | Down to the Sea in Ships | First Mate Dan Lunceford | |
| Slattery's Hurricane | Lt. Willard Francis Slattery | ||
| 1950 | Night and the City | Harry Fabian | |
| Panic in the Streets | Lt. Cmdr. Clinton "Clint" Reed M.D. | ||
| No Way Out | Ray Biddle | ||
| 1951 | Halls of Montezuma | Lt. Anderson | |
| The Frogmen | Lt. Cmdr. John Lawrence | ||
| 1952 | Red Skies of Montana | Cliff Mason | |
| Don't Bother to Knock | Jed Towers | ||
| O. Henry's Full House | Johnny Kernan | Segment: "The Clarion Call" | |
| My Pal Gus | Dave Jennings | ||
| 1953 | Destination Gobi | CPO Samuel T. McHale | |
| Pickup on South Street | Skip McCoy | ||
| Take the High Ground! | Sgt. Thorne Ryan | ||
| 1954 | Hell and High Water | Capt. Adam Jones | |
| Garden of Evil | Fiske | ||
| Broken Lance | Ben Devereaux | ||
| 1955 | A Prize of Gold | Sergeant Joe Lawrence | |
| The Cobweb | Dr. Stewart "Mac" McIver | ||
| 1956 | Backlash | Jim Slater | |
| Run for the Sun | Michael "Mike" Latimer | ||
| The Last Wagon | Comanche Jonathan Todd | ||
| 1957 | Saint Joan | The Dauphin, Charles VII | |
| Time Limit | Col. William Edwards | Also producer | |
| 1958 | The Law and Jake Wade | Clint Hollister | |
| The Tunnel of Love | August "Augie" Poole | ||
| 1959 | The Trap | Ralph Anderson | |
| Warlock | Johnny Gannon | ||
| 1960 | The Alamo | Colonel Jim Bowie | |
| 1961 | The Secret Ways | Michael Reynolds | Also producer; uncredited director |
| Two Rode Together | First Lt. Jim Gary | ||
| Judgment at Nuremberg | Col. Tad Lawson | ||
| 1962 | How the West Was Won | Mike King | |
| 1964 | The Long Ships | Rolfe | |
| Flight from Ashiya | Lt. Col. Glenn Stevenson USAF | ||
| Cheyenne Autumn | Capt. Thomas Archer | ||
| 1965 | The Bedford Incident | Captain Eric Finlander USN | Also producer |
| 1966 | Alvarez Kelly | Col. Tom Rossiter | |
| 1967 | The Way West | Lije Evans | |
| 1968 | Madigan | Det. Daniel Madigan | |
| 1969 | Death of a Gunfighter | Marshal Frank Patch | |
| A Talent for Loving | Major Patten | ||
| 1970 | The Moonshine War | Dr. Emmett Taulbee | |
| 1972 | When the Legends Die | Red Dillon | |
| 1974 | Murder on the Orient Express | Samuel Ratchett aka Lanfranco Cassetti | |
| 1975 | The Last Day | Will Spence | |
| 1976 | To the Devil a Daughter | John Verney | |
| The Sell Out | Sam Lucas | ||
| 1977 | Twilight's Last Gleaming | Gen. Martin MacKenzie – Commander in Chief, SAC | |
| The Domino Principle | Tagge | ||
| Rollercoaster | Agent Hoyt | ||
| 1978 | Coma | Dr. Harris | |
| The Swarm | Gen. Slater | ||
| 1979 | Bear Island | Otto Gerran | |
| 1982 | National Lampoon Goes to the Movies | Stan Nagurski | Segment: "Municipalians" |
| Hanky Panky | Ransom | ||
| Who Dares Wins | Secretary of State Arthur Currie | ||
| 1984 | Against All Odds | Ben Caxton | |
| 1991 | True Colors | Sen. James Stiles |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | I Love Lucy | Himself | TV series; "The Tour" |
| 1971 | Vanished | President Paul Roudebush | TV movie Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie |
| 1972–1973 | Madigan | Sgt. Dan Madigan | TV series; 6 episodes Based on the1968 film of the same name |
| 1973 | Brock's Last Case | Lieutenant Max Brock | TV movie |
| 1974–1975 | The Lives of Benjamin Franklin | Benjamin Franklin | TV mini-series |
| 1975 | The Last Day | Will Spence | TV movie |
| 1979 | Mr. Horn | Al Sieber | TV movie |
| 1980 | All God's Children | Judge Parke Denison | TV movie |
| 1981 | A Whale for the Killing | Tom Goodenough | TV movie |
| 1985 | Blackout | Joe Steiner | TV movie |
| 1987 | A Gathering of Old Men | Sheriff Mapes | TV movie |
| 1988 | Once Upon a Texas Train | Captain Owen Hayes | TV movie |
| 1989 | Cold Sassy Tree | Enoch Rucker Blakeslee | TV movie |
| 1992 | Lincoln | Ward Hill Lamon (voice) | TV movie |
| Year | Program | Episode/source |
|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Theatre Guild on the Air | Lilim[17] |
| 1953 | Theatre Guild on the Air | 1984[18] |
| 1953 | Suspense | Othello (Parts 1 and 2)[19][20] |
| 1979-80 | Sears Radio Theater | Host -Adventure Night |
