RICHARD WIDMARK

Richard Widmark (1914-2008) studied acting at Lake Forest College and taught it at the college after graduation, before debuting on radio in 1938 in “Aunt Jenny's Real Life Stories.” He appeared on Broadway in 1943 in “Kiss and Tell.” His first movie appearance was a dilly – as the giggling, sociopathic villain Tommy Udo in 1947's KISS OF DEATH. His most notorious scene in the film found Udo pushing a wheelchair-bound old woman (played by Mildred Dunnock) down a flight of stairs to her death. The film quicklymade him so popular that only two years later he had his handprints cast in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theater. In the intervening two years, he had appeared in SLATTERY'S HURRICANE, DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS, YELLOW SKY, ROAD HOUSE and THE STREET WITH NO NAME. In 1950, he starred in another noir classic, NIGHT AND THE CITY.