Richard Widmark

Born on December 26, 1914 in Sunrise Township Minnesota Richard Weedt Widmark spent his childhood in Princeton, Illinois and attended Lake Forest College. After graduation Widmark taught acting at Lake Forest. He made his radio debut on "Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories' from New York City and made his stage debut on Broadway in Kiss and Tell (1943). His film breakthrough was in Kiss of Death in 1947. Widmark has hands and feet in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre (1949).
Widmark appeared on TV in I Love Lucy (1951) and produced films during the 1950s. His film career was static during the 1970s so he began to act on television. He starred in his own TV series, Madigan, but the show was cancelled after only six episodes.
Widmark was part of the generation of actors who became famous after WWII. He brought a hardboiled personality who does not look for sympathy. Widmark played troubled and conflicted parts and at times corrupt characters. He worked steadily until his death in 2008. His career included Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), a psychotic in The Street with No Name (1948) and Road House. He played alongside Gregory Peck in Yellow Sky (1948) and Panic in the Streets in 1950.
Skip to 1960 where Widmark acted in concert with John Wayne in The Alamo. In 1964 Widmark was the top star in Cheyenne Autumn. He acted in A-list pictures through the 1960s with his performance as a police detective in Madigan (1968). His film list also includes Murder on the Orient Express (1974) Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977) and the Domino Killings (1977).
Widmark was married to Jean Hazlewood for 55 years until her death in 1997. He married Susan Blanchard in 1999. Widmark died on March 24, 2008 in the home he moved to in Roxbury Connecticut in the 1950s. He had one child.