Richard Widmark, Actor, Dies at 93

[suston96]

Source: NY Times

Richard Widmark, who created a villain in his first movie role who was so repellent and frightening that the actor became a star overnight, died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn. He was 93.

His death was announced Wednesday morning by his wife, Susan Blanchard. She said that Mr. Widmark had fractured a vertebrae in recent months and that his conditioned had worsened.

As Tommy Udo, a giggling, psychopathic killer in the 1947 gangster film “Kiss of Death,” Mr. Widmark tied up an old woman in a wheelchair (played by Mildred Dunnock) with a cord ripped from a lamp and shoved her down a flight of stairs to her death.

“The sadism of that character, the fearful laugh, the skull showing through drawn skin, and the surely conscious evocation of a concentration-camp degenerate established Widmark as the most frightening person on the screen,” the critic David Thomson wrote in “The Biographical Dictionary of Film.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/26/arts/26cnd-widmark.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[Breeze54]

1. Richard Widmark was a great actor, I always liked him.

RIP, Richard and thanks for all the great movies. :(

[Ilsa]

2. Oh no! Didn't he recently do a voice spot for a liberal radio message?

I can't remember what it was off the top of my head, but I am pretty sure I heard him on Nova M radio.

RIP, Mr. Widmark. You were unique and you will be missed.

[MikeNearMcChord]

33. It was Jack Klugman, the guy from "The Odd Couple"

Saw Mr.Widmark on Alverez Kelly not too long ago.

[Ilsa]

38. YEah, JK was one of them. I think I am thinking of

someone named Whitmore? Anyway, he is an elderly man now. Yeah, Whitmore.

[TK421]

3. Terrible loss....he was a legend n/t

[meegbear]

4. Here's the scene that made him famous ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHHJsXH3BiU

[madrchsod]

13. that movie is a classic

[goodgd_yall]

40. If it's the one I'm thinking

I don't think I can watch it right now---it's so powerful!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

5. R.I.P.

I found this excerpt interesting:

A passionate liberal Democrat, Mr. Widmark played a bigot who baits a black doctor in Joseph Mankiewicz’s “No Way Out” (1950). He was so embarrassed by the character that after every scene he apologized to the young actor he was required to torment, Sidney Poitier. In 1990, when Mr. Widmark was given the D.W. Griffith Career Achievement Award by the National Board of Review, it was Mr. Poitier who presented it to him.

[bean fidhleir]

12. The "D.W.Griffith Award"? Who's brilliant idea was THAT?

The irony on that stage must have been up to their chins.

[xchrom]

6. one of my favs -- very sad. Peace Be with his family and friends. nt

[emilyg]

7. RIP

[El Supremo]

8. My favorite was Cheyenne Autumn.

John Ford's last movie which was very sympathetic to indians.

[El Supremo]

9. Who else is left from that era besides Karl Malden?

I know Olivia De Havilland, but she was from even before.

[navarth]

16. wasn't that Eva-Marie Saint? or was that Carrol Baker

can't remember who the blonde girl was, but that role was a real sweetheart. What a great movie. What about Fernando Lamas? Didn't he play one of the Cheyenne leaders?

Gotta get out the movie book when I get home

[El Supremo]

25. Carol Baker was the Quaker teacher

Ricardo Montalban and Gilbert Roland were the chiefs. Sal Mineo was the brave. Karl Malden was the ass-hole commandant at Fort Robinson.

Very authentic if not totally historic.

[navarth]

39. Yeah, Malden was brilliant

but anyway, as to who's still alive....Baker and Montalban are still alive aren't they?

Widmark was a class guy. And John Ford is one of my top 5 favorite directors.

[CBGLuthier]

28. Kirk Douglas

Ernest Borgnine too, although he didn't start in films until 1951.

And that's the only two I can think of.

[El Supremo]

32. Bingo!

There's got to be some others.

Wait! Eli Wallach. He's as old as Widmark but didn't get to films until 1956.

[navarth]

15. yeah. a John Ford classic. making up for his former treatment of Native Americans, I hear

Widmark was wonderful in that movie. And John Ford is one of the greatest. Also a liberal democrat. How he could stand being around John Wayne and Ward Bond, I wonder.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

31. Interesting tidbit from the NY Times article:

"The genesis of “Cheyenne Autumn” was research Mr. Widmark had done at Yale into the suffering of the Cheyenne. He showed his work to John Ford and, two years later, Ford sent Mr. Widmark a finished screenplay."

Rest in peace, Mr Widmark.

[magellan]

10. Great man, great actor

Thanks for everything and RIP, Mr. Widmark.

[Mudoria]

11. Always liked "The Bedford Incident" myself..

one of my favorite movies. RIP Mr. Widmark

[Javaman]

20. Fantastic movie! nt

[Submariner]

35. I joined the submarine service and the Bedford Incident came

out later that year. To say it freaked me out, since I was on sub-Arctic patrols then, is putting it mildly. Great flick, but too close to real for me at the time.

[Doctor_J]

14. A died-in-the-wool lefty, enemy of Reagan and The Duke

and a target of the first McCarthy inquisition. Go with God.

[newscott]

17. RIP Ed Harris... Oops Mr. Widmark

They do look remarkably similar no? Both great actors in their own right.

[CTyankee]

18. I remember his great performance in "Judgment at Nuremberg."

He was an army lawyer prosecuting war criminals. He had some great scenes. Lots of greats in that 1961 movie, now all dead: Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, Marlene Dietrich, Burt Lancaster. I think only Maximilian Schell and William Shatner are still living.

[Cooley Hurd]

26. I think my favorite is "Down to the Sea in Ships..."

...with Widmark, Lionel Barrymore and a very young Dean Stockwell.

[lpbk2713]

19. His bio says he was against guns and violence.

Link: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20080326/D8VL8OGG0.html

A quiet, inordinately shy man, Widmark often portrayed killers, cops and Western gunslingers. But he said he hated guns.

"I know I've made kind of a half-assed career out of violence, but I abhor violence," he remarked in a 1976 Associated Press interview. "I am an ardent supporter of gun control. It seems incredible to me that we are the only civilized nation that does not put some effective control on guns."


I always liked the way he portrayed the roles he played. He will be missed.

[Lautremont]

21. A fine actor and, it seems, a very good man.

He had a good long run! R.I.P.

[edbermac]

22. "Ya know what I do to squealers?"

"I let 'em have it in the belly, so they can roll around for a long time thinkin' it over. You're worse than him, tellin' me he's comin' back? Ya lyin' old hag!"



RIP Mr Widmark.

[KansDem]

30. That is indeed a classic!

Mr. Widmark's performance as psychopath Tommy Udo still chills my blood! :scared:

[Submariner]

34. Ohhhhh you're so bad....you're going to burn in HELL for that one

When I saw that movie years ago I think it was a little old lady in the wheelchair....Not Krauthammer from Fox Noise! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

[tabasco]

23. He was great in SO many movies!

I can hear his distinctive voice and picture his face in my mind, I have seen him in so many good movies.

Fantastic actor. RIP.

[Cooley Hurd]

24. Rest in peace, Mr Widmark...

One hell of an actor! He will be missed...:(

[Tellurian]

27. Great Actor with amazing stage presence. RIP Mr. Widmark..

Verry little worth watching on tv these days.

History and Science channels and

another favorite channel TCM network.

Hoping they do a tribute month for RW..

[MasonJar]

29. Thank you, Richard, for all those thrilling moments watching you on the sceen.

[goodgd_yall]

36. Requiescat in pacem, Mr. Widmark n/t

[Honeycombe8]

37. I liked him a lot. Hate to see him go. Great guy. In that I Love Lucy episode, he was

great. Lucy snuck into his house and hid under a bear rug, while Widmark and Ricky were talking business in the room. Hilarious.

[Strelnikov_]

41. "Now don't worry, Commodore. The Bedford'll never fire first. But if he fires one, I'll fire one. "

"One fired, Sir"

[Maat]

42. May he rest in peace.

Another great artist passes on to the Great Beyond.

[Vidar]

43. A last salute to a great actor.