in memoriam: Richard Widmark

Richard Widmark (1914-2008)

Perhaps one of the most underrated actors of classic hollywood. The ubiquitous face of the American noir---from his debut as the ruthless psychopathic mob-hitman in Kiss of Death (1947) to the scheming old hospital director in Michael Crichton's Coma (1978), Widmark's career spanned decades of heavyhanded roles in a variety of genres. 

Samuel Fuller, who casted Widmark as the conscience-absent grifter in his masterpiece noir Pickup on South Street (1953), said of the actor as having a "strange face with a twisted, arrogant smile, and that didn't fit into anybody's scheme of Hollywood handsomeness". True enough that Widmark did not possess the typical attributes of a leading man, but it was this that caught Fuller's attention (note that he would work with the director for Hell and High Water, and Fixed Bayonets!).