Richard Widmark, who made an indelible screen debut in 1947 as a giggling sadistic killer and later brought a sense of urban cynicism and unpredictability to his roles as a leading man, has died. He was 93.
Widmark died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn., after a long illness, his wife, Susan Blanchard, told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. She said a fractured vertebrae Widmark suffered in a fall last year was the beginning of his illness.
"I lost a dear friend, and you don't have friends like him," Karl Malden, who first met Widmark in New York when they were both, he said Wednesday, "hustling for radio work" in the early 1940s. Malden later appeared in five movies with Widmark.
"He was a damn good actor," said Malden. "He knew what he was doing, he could do it well and he hated anyone he worked with who wasn't prepared because he came ready to go."
