Richard Widmark

Our Star for August in an interview in 2002 at 87 still sharp of mind with Michael Shelden recalled vividly his costar Marilyn Monroe from his work with her in 1952’s Don’t Bother to Knock. He said  ‘I liked Marilyn, but she was God awful to work with. Impossible really.” That long screen kiss was pulled off magnificently in true Hollywood fashion but Richard was nonplussed and knew there was nothing chemical between them. Widmark recalled that she would hide in her dressing room and refuse to come out on the set, she was nervous and he surmised she was like a wounded bird, insecure and self-destructive. The interview gave me the insight that this actor who would often portray the most sinister of parts conveyed a geniality and reserve that belied the roles he played. Unlike many of his contemporaries Richard Widmark traveled in the slow lane and avoided controversy and made sure he steered clear of scandal. He was the proverbial antithesis to his big screen persona. 

Richard was born in Minnesota to Ethel Mae and Carl Henry Widmark on Boxing Day 1914. His father of Swedish descent and his mother was of English and Scottish ancestry.  Claiming to have loved movies since he was 4 years old, Richard was particularly struck by the 1931 films of Frankenstein and Dracula. He was very impressed by Boris Karloff.  Who knows if these two horror films helped him craft some of the maniacal roles he was destined for? The movies were not his first intention as a career choice however as he was going to become a lawyer or so he thought. Richard excelled at public speaking and while at college he won a role ironically called Counselor at Law. After his degree at Lake Forest College he stayed on as Assistant Director of Speech and Drama but by this time the acting “bug” had gripped him and when he eventually quit he headed to New York and landed on radio and distinguished himself in 1938’s Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories. By 1943 on stage in Kiss and Tell his portrayals were milquetoast from the tough as nails men that were to come.  

Widmark trying to answer his Country’s call attempted to enter the Service three times but was rejected each time because of a perforated eardrum. He went to ear specialists but to no avail. He would later joke that he had a hole in his head. Instead he became an air raid warden stateside and entertained the troops via the “American Theatre Wing”. Widmark would star in quite a few War flicks however like Halls of Montezuma 1950, The Frogmen 1951, Destination Gobi 1953, and Take the High Ground that same year.  

After WWII it was the role Richard Widmark is most remembered for 1947’s Kiss of Death. As the thug Tommy Udo poised at the top of the landing he pushes poor Mildred Dunnock who is strapped in her wheelchair down a full flight of stairs as Widmark’s character gleefully giggles in his malevolent deed. Audiences were shocked and horrified but yet drawn to the violence nonetheless and for the role Richard garnered an Oscar nomination in a supporting role. His infamous line: “You 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.” Widmark thought he overplayed the part but Daryl Zanuck thought otherwise. The director also had misgivings he said Widmark looked too much the intellectual so they added a wig to make him look more hard-boiled.  

Married to his high school sweetheart Jean Hazlewood in 1942 their marriage would last 55 years until her death in 1997 and the couple would have one child Anne now in her fifties.  Richard speaking about Jean in the interview from 2002 he said that his wife was highly intelligent and that the last 5 years of her life was most painful as she suffered from Alzheimer’s. 2 ½ years later he would marry Susan Blanchard until his death in 2008 at 93. He unlike other Hollywood men didn’t wed women half his age, as Susan was 71 at the time. Susan was the late spouse of Henry Fonda and helped steward his children Jane and Peter after their father’s death. She also starred in three films herself in 1947.  

Richard Widmark carved out a great career at Fox from 1957 until 1964 where he made 20 films. Afterward he went to on to star as Jim Bowie with John Wayne in The Alamo then with James Stewart in Two Rode Together and as the U.S. prosecutor in Judgment at Nuremberg.  In real life against violence and guns Widmark’s roles were an anomaly to the man himself.  

A liberal Democrat in one of his roles No Way Out in 1950 opposite Sidney Poitier he plays a bigot tormenting the young doctor hurling racial epithets unmercifully at him. So embarrassed Richard felt he had to apologize to Poitier after every scene. As fate would have it he would receive the D.W. Griffith Award in 1990 and the presenter was Sidney Poitier.  

Richard Widmark died in Roxbury, Connecticut on March 27th 2008. Susan initially didn’t provide details of his death but later it was found to be as a result of a fall as the autopsy revealed a fractured vertebra. Richard Widmark began to loathe the bad guy roles and was moving away from that image but one role that he just couldn’t say no to was the film noir Pickup on South Street in 1953 directed by Sam Fuller. Here as Skip McCoy he played on of the first anti-heroes. As a slick pick pocket at odds with the detective hell bent on putting him back behind bars McCoy turns hero burying his pal Moe Williams played by Thelma Ritter (Winner of the Academy for supporting Actress here) and falling in love with a determined prostitute loyal to the end and preventing microfilm from being passed to the Communists. 

Richard Widmark was a fire on the screen and warm milk in real life.