Richard Widmark dies at 93
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| Richard Widmark visits the Princeton home of Fred (center) and Jack (right) Best. (Photo contributed) |
ROXBURY, Conn. — Academy Award winning actor Richard Widmark, formerly of Princeton, died Monday in Connecticut. He was 93.
Synonymous with cinema tough guys, Widmark ironically was so well-liked when he lived in Princeton that he was elected president of his senior class. While he loved watching movies at the Princeton theater, acting was not his intended career.
He earned a bachelor of arts at Lake Forest College in preparation for law school. Instead, he stayed at Lake Forest after graduating in 1936 as its assistant director of speech and drama.
Two years later, however, he’d moved to New York to do voice-overs for gangland radio shows before reaching Broadway in 1943 with the drama “Kiss and Tell.” In 1947, he earned an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor for his role as Tommy Udo, a heartless killer who laughs while pushing a woman tied in a chair down a flight of stairs in “Kiss of Death.” He failed to claim the Oscar but won a Golden Globe.
“Hoods are good parts because they’re always flashy and attract attention,” Widmark once said. “If you’ve got any ability, you can use that as a stepping stone.”
Which Widmark did, becoming the epitome of an anti-hero promoted in “Wanted” posters by 20th Century Fox. The film was followed by others where Widmark’s characters were equally corrupt before he advanced to more likable roles.
In 1950, he played a hero who tracked down Jack Palance’s plague-carrying villain. His work spanned Westerns, thrillers and military films where, at 5’ 10”, he shared the screen with giants like Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne in roles that ranged from gruesome-faced killers to Jim Bowie at The Alamo.
“I felt pretty comfortable with Westerns, apart from the fact that I couldn’t ride,” Widmark once said. “The more takes I do, the worse I get.”
Widmark didn’t need to, for he could act. And in 1961’s Academy Award winning “Judgment at Nuremberg,” Widmark used his law school preparation to hold a celebrity cast together as the U.S. prosecutor.
He continued acting until 1990, performing in classics that included “Cheyenne Autumn,” “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Coma.” He also took a turn at TV, playing himself in “I Love Lucy” and playing “Madigan,” a detective, for NBC’s Wednesday Mystery Movies.
Widmark, however, seldom gave interviews. He treasured his private life, most notably his 55-year marriage to his first wife, Susan, and their daughter, Anne, who was married to baseball legend Sandy Koufax. Outside of film, he focused his efforts on nature preservation in Roxbury, Conn., where he lived and, on March 24, died.
“I think a performer should do his work and then shut up,” Widmark once said.
Jack Best of Princeton remembers Richard Widmark as a good friend of his dad, Tommy Best.
“They were the best of friends,” Jack said. “My dad and Richard were in school together. They played football together. They did lots of things together.”
Jack said his father liked to tell about the time Widmark called him to ask his opinion on a possible acting career.
“Richard went to college and was teaching when he got a chance to have a part in a Broadway play. He called my dad to ask what he should do,” Jack said. “My dad told him no, don’t take the part. He (Widmark) had a good teaching job and should stick with that, my dad said. Well, Richard didn’t follow my dad’s advice. He took the job on Broadway and the rest is history.”
Through the years, Jack’s dad and Widmark continued to keep in touch through letters and visits.
As a young boy, Jack remembers the times when Widmark would come to visit them and how Widmark would study his scripts in the evenings. He was a very private man and didn’t want the general public to know he was in town, Jack said.
After Widmark left Princeton after a visit, Ted Duffield, his friend and the editor of the Bureau County Republican, would publish a story about Widmark’s visit. Once, the newspaper ran a picture of Jack and his brother, Fred, with Widmark in the Best home.
“Dick was a very fine gentleman, a very intelligent man,” Jack said. “He and my dad had quite the good relationship.”
BCR reporter Donna Barker contributed to this story.
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