Richard Widmark - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Biography

This page uses content from the Richard Widmark biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

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

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Richard 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.

Biography

Richard 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 for his role as Udo. Widmark's character in this film was the inspiration for the song, "The Ballad of Tommy Udo" by the band Kaleidoscope.

Widmark became so popular so fast that it was only two years later that he had his handprints cast in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater. In the intervening two years, he had appeared in Slattery's Hurricane, Down to the Sea in Ships, Yellow Sky, Road House and The Street with No Name.

Widmark was married to his first wife, Jean Hazlewood, from April 5, 1942, until her death on March 2, 1997. Their daughter, Anne Heath Widmark, married baseball legend Sandy Koufax on January 1, 1969. In September of 1999, Widmark married Susan Blanchard, who was earlier Henry Fonda's third wife.

Selected filmography (mostly starring roles)

True Colors (1991)
Cold Sassy Tree (1989)
A Gathering of Old Men (1987)
Blackout (1985)
Against All Odds (1984)
Who Dares Wins (1982)
Hanky Panky (film) (1982)
National Lampoon Goes to the Movies (1982)
A Whale for the Killing (1981)
All God's Children (1980)
Bear Island (1979)
Mr. Horn (1979)
The Swarm (1978))
Coma (1978)
The Domino Principle (1977)
Rollercoaster (1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)
The Sell-Out (1976)
To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
The Last Day (1975)
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
"Benjamin Franklin" (1974) [mini series]
Brock's Last Case (1973)
"Madigan" (1972) [TV series]
When the Legends Die (1972)
Vanished (1971)
The Moonshine War (1970)
Death of a Gunfighter (1969)
A Talent for Loving (1969)
Madigan (1968)
The Way West (1967)
Alvarez Kelly (1967)
The Bedford Incident (1965)
Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
Flight from Ashiya (1964)
The Long Ships (1963)
How the West Was Won (1962)
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Two Rode Together (1961)
The Secret Ways (1961)
The Alamo (1960)
Warlock (1959)
The Trap (1959)
The Tunnel of Love (1958)
Time Limit (1957)
Saint Joan (1957)
The Last Wagon (1956)
Run for the Sun (1956)
Backlash (1956)
The Cobweb (1955)
A Prize of Gold (1955)
Broken Lance (1954)
Garden of Evil (1954)
Hell and High Water (1954)
Take the High Ground! (1953)
Pickup on South Street (1953)
Destination Gobi (1953)
My Pal Gus (1952)
O. Henry's Full House (1952)
Don't Bother to Knock (1952)
Red Skies of Montana (1952)
The Frog Men (1951)
Halls of Montezuma (1950)
No Way Out (1950)
Panic in the Streets (1950)
Night and the City (1952)
Slattery's Hurricane (1949)
Down to the Sea in Ships (1949)
Yellow Sky (1948)
Road House (1949)
The Street with No Name (1948)
Kiss of Death (1947)

External links

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