28 Facts About Richard Widmark

Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer.

Richard Widmark was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death, for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer.

Early in his career, Widmark was typecast in similar villainous or anti-hero roles in films noir, but he later branched out into more heroic leading and supporting roles in Westerns, mainstream dramas, and horror films among others.

Richard Widmark was born December 26,1914, in Sunrise Township, Minnesota, the son of Ethel Mae and Carl Henry Richard Widmark.

Richard Widmark's father was of Swedish descent, and his mother was of English and Scottish ancestry.

Richard Widmark grew up in Princeton, Illinois, and lived in Henry, Illinois for a short time, moving frequently because of his father's work as a traveling salesman.

Richard Widmark attended Lake Forest College, where he studied acting and taught acting after he was graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in speech in 1936.

Richard Widmark made his debut as a radio actor in 1938 on Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories.

Richard Widmark returned to radio drama decades later, performing on CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and was one of the five hosts on Sears Radio Theater from 1979 to 1981.

Richard Widmark was unable to join the military during World War II because of a perforated eardrum.

Kiss of Death was a commercial and critical success: Richard Widmark won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actor, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.

Richard Widmark followed Kiss of Death with other villainous performances in the films noir The Street with No Name and Road House, and the western Yellow Sky, the latter film with Gregory Peck and Anne Baxter.

Richard Widmark played heroic roles in films, including Down to the Sea in Ships, Slattery's Hurricane, and Elia Kazan's Panic in the Streets.

Richard Widmark's next starring role was in the 1951 WWII drama, Frogmen.

Richard Widmark featured in Halls of Montezuma and Don't Bother to Knock, and appeared in two films for director Samuel Fuller: Pickup on South Street and Hell and High Water.

Richard Widmark has appeared in a number of successful films, including The Tunnel of Love with Doris Day, the Westerns Warlock with Henry Fonda, as Jim Bowie in John Wayne's The Alamo, the courtroom drama Judgment at Nuremberg, and reuniting with Sidney Poitier in the adventure The Long Ships.

Richard Widmark began to drift into supporting roles during the 1970s, though he still played the occasional lead, for instance in the 1976 British-West German film To the Devil a Daughter.

Richard Widmark was part of an all-star cast in the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express, the 1977 film Rollercoaster, and The Swarm.

Richard Widmark had a prominent supporting role in Michael Crichton's Coma, with Genevieve Bujold and Michael Douglas.

Richard Widmark has appeared in a number of films during the 1980s, again with Sidney Poitier who directed him in the comedy Hanky Panky, with Gene Wilder.

Richard Widmark featured in the political thriller Who Dares Wins, and Against All Odds, with Jeff Bridges and James Woods.

Richard Widmark finds Lucy sprawled out on his living room floor underneath a bearskin rug.

Richard Widmark participated in a mini-series about Benjamin Franklin, transmitted 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, and Willie Aames who portrayed Franklin at age 12.

Richard Widmark was married to screenwriter Jean Hazlewood for 55 years from 1942 until her death in 1997.

In 1999, Richard Widmark married Susan Blanchard, the daughter of Dorothy Hammerstein and stepdaughter of Oscar Hammerstein II; she had been Henry Fonda's third wife.

Richard Widmark owned a cattle ranch near Green City, Missouri during the 1950s and 1960s.

Richard Widmark contributed funds to the construction of an airport there, bearing his name in his honor.

Richard Widmark's failing health in his final years was aggravated by a fall he suffered in 2007.