Richard Widmark: (Jerry Skinner Documentary)

[Music] the actor Richard Widmark was more in a small community of Sunrise Minnesota within one year the family will move to Sioux Falls South Dakota Richard's father Carl Henry Widmark was starting a new job as a traveling salesman after moving to Sioux Falls Richard's mother Ethel made on July the 25th 1918 presents the family with another baby boy doll Richard and Amon will become dependent on each other and remain close to the use Richard had always give credit to his little Scottish grandmother as he described her for his love for the movies he said that she was a Tom Mix fan and she would taken to the movies two and sometimes three times a week starting when he was around four years old the family moved often following Karl's job but finally settled at 5:14 South Main in Princeton Illinois where call at bought a bakery the family moved into the apartment upstairs over what he had named Henry's bakery now this is a picture of Dahl shoveling snow in front of the bakery with his brother Richard Richard attended Princeton high school he was a good student and he lettered in football now this is Richard our dick as he was called by his family and friends and his brother Donal with her grandmother Mary bar that was Richard's mother Schmucker Richard to become class president in his senior year but in his junior year his mother and father Carl and Ethel will separate Ethel will remain in Princeton with the boys until graduate dick will graduate in 1932 and attend Lake Forest College on a scholarship his intentions was to study law and become an attorney Widmark will graduate from Lake Forest in 1936 and while at Lake Forest Carl and Ethel reunited for a short time but we'll finally divorce him 19 and 41 while at Lake Forest Richard will continue playing football and he will win third place in the Illinois State oratory contest you become class president and star in college plays now this is Richard as dear old grandpa and one of those plays he stated that he was afraid to admit his interest in acting because it was considered being his interest quickly turned from law to the state but most of all he'll meet the love of his life or a Jean Hazelwood it was also a drama student and seeking a career in the theater after graduation Widmark will be asked to stay at Lake Forest as an assistant director of drama and speech after teaching at Lake Forest for two years in 1938 Widmark leaves Illinois and heads for New York where a friend had offered him an audition on a radio soap opera also in New York was where his college sweetheart Jean Hazelwood was studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts wig Mart was soon appearing on radio in aunt Ginny's real-life stories he soon found himself in demand and was running from one studio to another for months after the start of World War two on April the 5th 1942 Richard Widmark and origin Hazelwood will be made in Evanston Illinois jeans hometown Widmark will claim years later that after meeting Jean he will never even flirt with another woman I happen to like my wife he said a lot their marriage will last for 55 years until her dead without even one Hollywood scandal after they were made Richard will try and volunteer for service but will be turned down because of a perforated eardrum however his brother Donal will be drafted and sent to Europe the family will later learn in 1943 that Dolls plane was shot down over the Netherlands he'll be the only one of the crew to survive Donald was injured and will spend almost a year and a half in a German prison camp although he'll be released at the end of the war Donald's health will continue to decline Richard will speak no expense for his brother's care he said that the government kept saying that there was nothing wrong with Dahl though we knew they were he had severe headaches and in 1951 became partially paralyzed and on December twenty second nineteen $55 Widmark will pass away from brain tumour at the age of 37 you'll be buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills California in 1943 while Richard and Jean was worried about doll making it through the war Richard was making his debut on Broadway and kiss and tail he was also entertaining troops to the American Theatre Wing by this time Widmark was making a good living playing on Broadway and radio and in 1945 Richard and Jeanne will have their only child and Heath Widmark on July the 25th Richard will be asked by 20 Century Fox Darryl F zanuck to play the part of a sadistic killer named Tommy Kudo and the movie kiss of death the movie was star Victor Mature Widmark stated that the director Henry Hathaway didn't want him for the part he said Richard had a high forehead and looked too intelligent to be a killer he was overruled by zanuck and he said that Hathaway gave him a hard time through the picture because of it Widmark stated that he wanted the part because it was being filmed in New York Richard is the only actor that ever became a star from his first movie and the first thing that he ever performed in a film as Tommy Udo he pushed Mildred dunnock down a set of stairs while she was in a wheelchair his life as a crazed killer became famous so much so that he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor although he didn't win the Oscar that year he did win the Golden Globe for the most promising Male newcomer he said he thought well there was nothing to this acting business he said I haven't won anything since when Mark said he had never seen himself on the screen before and what he did he wanted to shoot his suit however the public loved to hate him and 20th Century Fox offered him a seven-year contract he never expected that they would pick up his contract because he had to sign a bad contract in order to get the part for Tommy Udo now the next year in 1948 Widmark starred along with Gregory Peck and Anne Baxter in a Western called yellow sky Widmark also appeared in the road house with Celeste Holmes and Cornell while also the street with no name the Lord Nolan and Barbara Lawrence all in 1948 in 1949 it was down to the sea for lionel Barrymore the studio assigned a of two major films in 1950 panic in the street directed by wid Marx friend Eli Kazan who had actually worked with Richard on the Broadway stage and he actually was the one that persuaded Widmark to try out for the part of Tommy Udo in 1947 Widmark started with Jack Palance Zero Mostel and others the film lost money and the studio head Darryl zanuck believed it was because the movie was shot on location in New Orleans and costs too much money next was the racial sensitive movie no way out starring sinden Fortier and Linda Darnell wood Mart will try to get out of his heart he was forced by the studio to play in the part of racist raid bibble tour da said that Widmark would apologize to him after each racial scene he would say now Sid you know this is just a part I don't really feel that way and Portier told Richard look dick I understand I'm an actor too they became lifelong friends and Sidney said that Richard Widmark was the first person in Hollywood to invite him to dinner which meant everything at that time the next year in 1951 Widmark was starved with Karl Malden that Richard had become friends with from his radio days back in New York it also starred Jack Palance and Richard Boone along with Robert Wagner in his first credited screen role and world war two film set in japanese-held islands halls of Montezuma in 1952 Widmark starred with Marilyn Monroe in don't bother to knock Richard said that Marilyn was like a wounded bird she wanted to be a star but she was afraid of everything she would hide in her dressing room around 5:00 in the afternoon everyone would plead with her to please come out they all wanted to go home to dinner he said that she had problems remembering her lands and you would think her performance was awful but when you seen her on the screen it was great when Mark said that he had been told that Maryland was always having romances with her leading men he said but not in my case she didn't even flirt with me and in 1954 it was broken Lance was Robert Wagner and Spencer Tracy this will be the last picture with 20th Century Fox before his seven-year contract runs out at the age of 40 Widmark was ready to go independent he was hired he said of finishing one picture on Friday starting another on Sunday plus he thought he could make more money as an independent Richard's daughter and said that her dad was always a family man and he likes staying at home now this is Ann and Richard at the San Fernando Valley Ranch in the mid fifties when Mark formed his own production company and named it heath productions his daughter's middle name in 1956 Richard's beloved mother Ethel Mae will pass away only one year after his brother doll in 1957 Richard Widmark was starved with Richard Basehart and June Lockhart in time limit the next year Widmark starred with dark stay and gig young in the tunnel of love also that same year it was the law and Jake Wade with Robert Taylor and Patricia Owens now this time Richard Widmark was well known and recognized wherever he went when he was asked about his privacy he said I don't care how well no an actor is he can live a normal life if he wants to in 1960 he played Jim Bowie and John Wayne's production of Alamo now Wayne wanted Richard to play the part of carlill William Travis not Bowie he said to the 5 foot 10 inch Widmark they're not big enough to play Jim Bowie Richard said I will be and he was the next year in 1961 Widmark started with James Stewart and Shirley Jones and two Road together a Western Widmark said that director John Ford and Jimmy Stewart spent most of their time arguing about the old hat that Stewart demanded to wear it was the same old hat that he wore him several other westerns Shirley Jones said that Richard Widmark was the only leading man that she ever fell in love with he was so kind both he and Stewart and so protective of me my romance never developed into anything yes that's why I love you the same year Widmark played the American prosecutor and judgment at Nuremberg with Spencer Tracy and Burt Lancaster in 1962 Widmark starred with John Wayne Jimmy Stewart Gregory Peck Debbie Reynolds Carol Baker Henry Fonda and others and the epic film How the West Was what the film cost the studio 15 million to make and eventually it made the studio 50 million in 1964 Richard and Jean was living on their 20 acres state in Connecticut and in 1966 it was Alvarez Kelly a civil war movie was William Holden and Janice rule the next year he was the wave West with Robert Mitchum and Curtin Douglas two years after Alvarez Kelly was finished with Mart will Aaron that his father called had passed away in New Orleans at the age of seventy on January the 1st 1969 Richard and James daughter Ann will marry Sandy Koufax famous baseball pitcher of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers they will marry at her parents home in West Los Angeles with only a few friends and family attending a 1971 the couple will move to a farm near Ennis worth man the next year Colfax will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown New York after 13 years of marriage and in Sandy Koufax will divorce in 1982 and will become an editor and author of books including between Earth and sky she makes her home in Santa Fe New Mexico in 1974 Widmark appeared in the Murder on the Orient Express was in Lauren Bacall and a host of others in 1982 he played in hanky panky directed by his friend Sidney Poitier and starred Gene Wilder and Gilda red in 1987 when Richard was 72 years old he stated I have discovered in my dotage that I find moviemaking near tape of a few years left and I don't want to spend it on a set 7 for 12 hours waiting to get two minutes of Sam over his career Richard Widmark appears in over 70 films way too many to name but as you can probably tell I'm partial to his westerns also in 1987 he told Parade magazine it's weird the effects that actors held on an audience I was walking down the street in a small town and some lady comes up to me and slaps me there take care she said you little squirt another time at a restaurant a big guy comes over knocks me right out of my chair this acting is an intersting business he said what's the reporter asking if he was astute with his money as so many stars had ended up broke he said no just tight in February of 1990 Richard Widmark at the age of 75 will receive what was his most honored award the WD Griffith Lifetime Achievement Award presented to him by his friend Sidney Poitier on receiving the award would mark said Sid I can't believe that you come all the way to California just to do this for me and for Jay replied for you dick I would have walked also that same year in 1990 the Widmark family will be devastated when they learn that Richards beloved wife team had been diagnosed with the beginnings of Alzheimer's after genes diagnosis Richard will lose his will to act his time will be devoted to her in order to fulfill an agreement the next year in 1991 he performs in his last picture true colors with John Cusack and Imogene Stubbs the next seven years will be heartbreaking for Richard and his daughter and to see their wife and mother slowly drifting away before their eyes and nothing could be done on March the second 1997 oral gene Hazelwood with mark passes away of Alzheimer's disease instead of Barbara California gene was a screenwriter the wife of 55 years - Richard Widmark and she was 80 years old gene will be buried at Roxbury Center Cemetery in Roxbury Connecticut a few months after Jane's death Richard sells their 80 acre Hidden Valley Ranch that they had enjoyed spending so much time at it just wasn't the same after her two and a half years later on September 27th 1999 at the age of 84 Richard will marry an old family friend 71 year old after Susan Blanchard Richard said that she was always good to Jean they'll make their home in Roxbury Connecticut three years later in 2002 Widmark will be inducted into the National cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City and by 2007 Richards health was faith and to complicate things he had fractured his vertebrae on the 24th of March 2008 at the age of 93 at his home in Roxby Richard Widmark the actor that many friends described as honourable and gentle passes away the same way he lived quietly he was buried at the Roxbury Center Cemetery at the head of genes grave and a stone is laid at the footages grave for Suzanne Richard Widmark star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at 6,800 block of Hollywood Boulevard [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Jerry Skinner

Views: 1,405,557

Rating: 4.7969666 out of 5

Keywords: Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier

Id: p_LTgYiqe38

Length: 22min 13sec (1333 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 07 2017