Oscar Profile #471: Richard Widmark

Born December 26, 1914 in Sunrise Township, Minnesota, growing up mostly in Illinois but moving frequently due to his father’s job as a traveling salesman. He attended Lake Forest College where he originally studied law but switched to acting after starring a school production of Counsellor-at-Law which he taught after graduating with a degree in speech in 1936.

Widmark made his radio debut in 1938 in Aunt Jenny’s Real-Life Stories and continued as a radio actor well into the 1940s. He married screenwriter Jean Hazelwood in 1942, a marriage that lasted 55 years until her death in 1997. He made his Broadway debut in 1943’s Kiss and Tell and appeared in four more Broadway plays through 1946.

Making his screen debut as a sociopathic killer in 1947’s Kiss of Death, Widmark was an immediate sensation, stealing the film from star Victor Mature, earning a Golden Globe for Best Newcomer – Male and an Oscar nomination for his performance.

After further villainous roles in The Street with No Name, Road House and Yellow Sky, Widmark was finally given a heroic lead role in 1949’s Down to the Sea in Ships. Now a major star, the actor had major successes with such 1950s films as Night and the City, Panic in the Streets, No Way Out (as another loathsome character), Halls of Montezuma, Don’t Bother to Knock, Pickup on South Street, Hell and High Water, Garden of Evil, Broken Lance, Time Limit, The Law and Jake Wade, Tunnel of Love and Warlock.

Widmark’s successes in the 1960s include The Alamo, Two Rode Together, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Long Ships, Cheyenne Autumn, The Bedford Incident, The Way West, Madigan and Death of a Gunfighter.

Moving into character roles in the 1970s, Widmark’s appearances were fewer but still memorable. His films within the decade included When the Legends Die, Murder on the Orient Express, Coma and The Swarm. He was later in 1984’s Against the Odds and 1991’s True Colors after which he appeared in the 1992 TV movie, Lincoln before retiring.

Two years after the death of his wife Jean in 1997, Widmark married Susan Blanchard, the daughter of Dorothy Hammerstein and stepdaughter of Oscar Hammerstein II. She had been married to Widmark’s friend and frequent co-star, Henry Fonda from 1950-1955.

Richard Widmark died on March 24, 2008 after a long illness.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

KISS OF DEATH (1947), directed by Henry Hathaway

One of the great examples of 1940s film noir starred Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy and Coleen Gray with fourth billed newcomer Richard Widmark all but stealing the film as a giggling, sociopathic killer who goes after Mature and his family. In the film’s most famous scene, he kicks an old lady in a wheelchair (played by Mildred Dunnock) down the stairs. The performance earned Widmark a Golden Globe for best newcomer and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Typecast as a bad guy, Widmark had his first nice guy role in 1949’s Down to the Sea in Ships.

NO WAY OUT (1950), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

The same year Mankiewicz received writing and directing Oscars for All About Eve, he was nominated for history and screenplay for this compelling film about a black doctor (played by Sidney Poitier) accused of murder by a racist convict (played by Widmark) when he is unable to save his younger brother on the operating table. Widmark apologized to Poitier profusely every time he was forced to utter one of his racist remarks to him. The two actors became life-long friends, appearing together again in 1964’s The Long Ships and 1965’s The Bedford Incident.

JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961), directed by Stanley Kramer

Widmark had one of his best roles as the prosecutor in this Oscar winning war crimes drama, his second film with his idol, Spencer Tracy, whose son he had played in 1954’s Broken Lance, as the presiding judge. One of the film’s seven top-billed stars, Widmark more than holds his own with Oscar nominated Tracy, Oscar winning Maximilian Schell as the defense counsel, Burt Lancaster as the primary defendant, Marlene Dietrich as the widow of a convicted general, and Oscar nominated Montgomery Clift and Judy Garland as witnesses who were victims of the Nazis..

MADIGAN (1968), directed by Don Siegel

After years of appearing in mostly action films, Widmark returned to the nitty gritty crime drama as the hardworking amoral detective during an explosive weekend in New York’s Spanish Harlem and other locations. Widmark, in the title role, and Harry Guardino are detectives whose guns were taken by the killer they were attempting to arrest (played by Harry Ihnat). He leads a colorful cast that also includes Henry Fonda as the police commissioner, James Whitmore as the chief of detectives as well as Inger Stevens, Susan Clark, Don Stroud, Sheree North, Warren Stevens and Raymond St. Jacques.

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1974), created by Sidney Lumet

The first of at least four film versions of Agatha Christie’s famed novels, Widmark was back to playing nasty as the murder victim in this all-star cast film that was nominated for six Oscars including one for Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, winning one for Best Supporting Actress for Ingrid Bergman as one of the suspects. Also in the cast were Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Rachel Roberts, Michael York, Colin Blakely, George Coulouris and Dennis Quilley among others.