A Gentle Giant Gone

This is very sad. Only three months after we celebrated the 93rd birthday of Academy Award-winning American actor Richard Widmark on this page, we hear that he has passed away at his home in Connecticut. We’ll remember Widmark for many things, but perhaps most for his portrayal of a sadistic killer in Kiss of Death (1947) and his performance as jaded New York cop Dan Madigan in both the 1968 film Madigan and its too-short-lived NBC-TV spinoff series. In its Widmark obituary, The New York Times recalls that

Well into his later years, the nonviolent, gun-hating Mr. Widmark, who described himself as “gentle,” was accosted by strangers who expected him to be a tough guy. There is even a story that Joey Gallo, the New York mobster, was so taken by Mr. Widmark’s performance in “Kiss of Death” that he copied the actor’s natty posture, sadistic smirk and tittering laugh.

“It’s a bit rough,” Mr. Widmark once said, “priding oneself that one isn’t too bad an actor and then finding one’s only remembered for a giggle.”

The full Times article can be found here.

LISTEN UP: In her Escape and Suspense! blog, Christine A. Miller gives a list of Widmark’s guest appearances on the old-time CBS radio anthology series, Suspense, and even offers two of those episodes for your listening pleasure. Click here to tune in.

READ MORE: “Richard Widmark, R.I.P.,” by Steve-O (Noir of the Week); “Richard Widmark, 93; Actor Played Both Heavies and Heroes,” by Dennis McLellan (Los Angeles Times); Richard Widmark Photo Gallery; “Screen Legend Richard Widmark Dies,” by Robert Siegel (National Public Radio); “Richard Widmark, R.I.P.,” by Marty McKee (Johnny LaRue’s Crane Shot); “Actor Richard Widmark Dies at 93” (Associated Press); “Widmark Left Indelible Impressions,” by William Goldman (Variety).