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Richard Widmark, 1914-2008
March 26, 2008

Actor Richard Widmark died this morning at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut. He was 93 years old.

 

An imposing figure from the tough-as-nails school of acting, Widmark appeared in some 65 films, including the memorable Pickup on South Street (1953), The Cobweb (1955), The Alamo (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Cheyenne Autumn (1963) and Madigan (1968), the Don Siegel-directed detective flick that became an NBC TV series in the early Seventies also starring Widmark  

 

But his most memorable film appearance was also his very first: As the giggling gangster  Tommy Udo in the 1947 Henry Hathaway-directed film noir Kiss of Death. A psychopathic killer if ever there was one, the

smallish role found Widmark tying up an old woman (Mildred Dunnock) to her wheelchair and pushing her down a staircase to her death, wildly giggling all the while. The part secured an Oscar nomination for Widmark--the only nomination he ever received in his five-decade carrer--for Best Supporting Actor.

 

The film was remade by Barbet Schroeder in 1995 starring Nicolas Cage and David Caruso—it promptly received the kiss of death at the box office, where it grossed an unimpressive $14 million. There was similar staircase scene in Schroeder’s remake, which was undoubtedly fine to all those who grew up watching Widmark do his business whenever the original film was on TV (which was quite often in the late Sixties up through the Eighties).

 

The original Kiss of Death has been available from Fox for a while now and I can only assume that the sales will enjoy a slight spike as virtually every obituary in the world is going to mention Richard Widmark’s crazy Tommy Udo. They should. And that’s nothing to wildly giggle about!

 

 

Posted by Laurence Lerman on March 26, 2008 | Comments (1)