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The World Is 100 Times Less Cool... Richard Widmark passes away
Hey folks, Harry here... This past year at Butt-Numb-A-Thon 9, I showed my personal favorite Richard Widmark film. A little movie he shot with Sam Fuller called PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET - I liked showing it knowing he was still alive... somewhere out there in the world. His Skip McCoy is one of the greatest heroic cads in the history of cinema. A pick pocket that's a Minnesota Fats with the pool table of life, knowing all the angles, or at least thinking he does. I've often said that Richard Widmark was a Warner Brothers character brought to life... A fully realized psychotic Daffy Duck... A worldly wise Bugs Bunny.... And even a weary Elmer Fudd.
Widmark is probably best known for his turn as Jim Bowie in John Wayne's THE ALAMO by the general public, while critics and cinephiles will never forget Widmark's first screen character... perhaps the greatest psychopath in the history cinema in KISS OF DEATH - I have the original one-sheet behind me now! Tommy Udo is easily right there with Cagney's Cody Jarrett.
But Widmark played in so many great films... Just check out THE STREET WITH NO NAME or NIGHT AND THE CITY or PANIC IN THE STREETS or the original NO WAY OUT. One of my favorite Widmark roles was in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG and I'm a big fan of his Captain in CHEYENNE AUTUMN.
But honestly... the movie that introduced me to Richard Widmark wasn't any of these great films... It was the Oscar Nominated Irwin Allen "classic" - THE SWARM - in which Richard Widmark was cast as a general having to do battle with a billion evil bees - way meaner than those pussy Seinfeld bees. So, while I'd like to give the best to Widmark's family and friends... I'm angry he is not here... we are now at the bees mercy. Mankind is doomed. So sad.
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Rest in peace, good sir. Your legend will live forever.
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fuck him I'am i getting something from his will fuck Him
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He was a good-un. A real sleazy bastard characters in some of his movies. KISS OF DEATH - that's the one.
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I'm glad I experienced "The 'Mark" on the big screen.
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so I dug out some DVDs and had a bit of a Widmark season: To The Devil A Daughter, Panic In The Streets, Night And The City (wonderful) and Kiss Of Death. Ashamed to say I thought he died years ago, so many of his peers have already passed. A proper movie star (i.e. he could actually act!).
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I watch that movie every time it shows up on TCM. RIP, Mr. Widmark.
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I think it is sad that he has passed away, but he lived a long, long, long time. We should be so lucky, to live to 93.
What is sad is that he spent his last months gravely ill.
He is in a better place now. -
thanks for some great movies.
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I'll always remember him in that film with Sidney Poitier. Not historically accurate, but entertaining!
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He could deliver the word "japanese" like no other.
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..in the Lee Marvin/Richard Boone mold..R.I.P.
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Thanks Harry for giving us b&w Widmark up on that big screen this year. It's a great memory. The guy was rogue handsome all the way. I remember Widmark mostly from his roles of the 70s as well. He was already missed from having truly retired from acting, but now he will be missed even more deeply than ever.
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Mar 26, 2008 7:25:31 PM CDT
Pickup On South Street was one of the best movies of BNAT 9
by knightshift
Thank you for showing it Harry. I too watched it and felt good to know that Richard Widmark was still among us. Although, my all-time favorite Widmark movie is still the first one that I saw him in: The Long Ships. Yeah it's way over-the-top corny but you gotta love how he faced down those crazy Moors and their Mare of Steel. Years later when I saw Kiss of Death he scared the crap out of me! He was definitely one of the greats.
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He wasn't exactly a close relation and I never knew him, but he was a relative of mine. Definitely sucks.
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he will be missed
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just a thought.
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His turn in Kiss of Death was kind of a Joker-like character. He even kind of dressed the part.
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If you watch how intense Heath Ledger was on screen, well Richard Widmark was like a sun about to go nova compared to Ledger's ascending comet. I say this not to belittle Heath Ledger, but to show that if you've never seen a performance by Richard Widmark, well... the cinema screen misses him. What a great screen actor he was.
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'Nuff said about my favorite Richard Widmark joint of all time.
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Great quote from Fuller's "Pickup on South Street". The smirk on Widmark's face when he spits out those words...priceless. My personal Widmark fave is "To the Devil...a Daughter", but that's mainly because of Nastassja Kinski's nude scene. I like boobies, so sue me. RIP, Mr. Widmark.
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He played make believe in in front of a camera, he didn't cure cancer.
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who pushes an old lady in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs, I think the clip was shown in bad boys. sean penn's bad boys that is. that guy was crazy!
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He stole every scene he was in.
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He was the guy. "Y'know what I do with squealers? I give 'em one right in the belly so's I can watch 'em roll around and think about it for a good long time." He was awesome. Had no idea he was still alive. Who said Paul Scofield died? I didn't know that...
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What a consumate actor. Versatile and captivating in every role he portrayed. Mr. Widmark created his roles in film as an artist creating a masterpiece. He was a an actor that was from a caliber of men that are rapidly disappearing. A class of actor that we will sadly never see again. And to the children that post their petty, infantile comments on this site trying to get a rise out of us and disrespecting Mr. Widmark as well as his family; you'll never know the greatness this man had and what he stood for. He's a better man in his passing than your are living in your shallow lives.
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that makes his life so fucking worthwhile?
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I make the rise every morning.
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Congratulations! You helped educate a child today. My girlfriend's kid asked me what a douchebag was and I let him read your posts. He now knows exactly what one is. Thanks now run along and try to think of some asinine shit to say.
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Always love that story how Sam's trademark coat was actually Richard Widmark's. Sam stole it for good luck. He got access to it because he was going out with his daughter.
RIP. -
It's one you didn't mention that I really liked. It's the only time I saw Marilyn not completely acting like Marilyn. And I thought they had a great chemistry together. "Yellow Sky" is another great one. I'm definitely going to miss him.
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Had to be in Jules Dassin's original Night and the City (1950)... perfect portrayal of an antihero. It's got a great Criterion edition, as does Pickup on South Street, so check 'em out.
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God, dude relax a bit... You'll give yourself a hernia...
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Clearly you bastards forgot him, and I was excited to see someone recommend "the train" as a lost treasure that we hadn't seen and we should seek out, fucking impostor nerds at AICN don't know shit, fuck you for ignoring Scofield's death.
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Now there is someone who really contributed to society, unlike this Richard Skidmark guy.
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You will be missed.
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You are my hero, and obviously Harry is a big fan of yours.
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Mar 26, 2008 11:47:04 PM CDT
Herb Peterson-Rest in peace, good sir. Your legend will live for
by tenaciousdoc
I would like to dedicate my second heart attack to you.
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There are no real men left in cinema. He´ll kick ass in Heaven.
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That was grande!
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like many have posted, the pushing the old lady in a wheel chair down the stairs, is one of the most memorable scenes in all of filmdom...a mans man
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That and the I Love Lucy episode is where I first saw him...class act and sorry to see him go...
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Don't forget his role in "Judgement at Nuremburg" and also the passing of it's Oscar winning screenwriter, Abby Mann
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Any chance of your second heart attack coming soon? I'm gutted the first didn't wipe you off the face of the planet, but there's always hope. Anyway, back to the topic of Mr Widmark's passing. Just because he didn't feature in any recent blockbusters, or is maybe an actor you haven't heard of, doesn't mean he should be disrespected. I'll always remember him from Judgement At Nuremburg, he'll be missed.
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tho' richie was 93 -- he had a very full life, and a classic career. if anything, the scary lunatic of _kiss of death_ was toned down almost immediately into an emotional tonality that was more rueful, troubled; his madigan was the perfect guilty cheating husband, e.g. now he and paul scofield can appear in an afterlife production of _love letters_...
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It was in the Hollywood episodes and Lucy sneaks into his house. I'll be honest and didn't know he was still alive. I thought he was awesome in everything he did. He was a great psychopath but he also played a hero in the Viking movie, THE LONGSHIPS. He played the victim in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS and he deserved to die!
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Man, Widmark ruled as an overconfident captain of a destroyer ship during the cold war as he descends into madness, the film had me staring at the screen a good ten minutes after it finish in shock reflection. Widmark has been so criminally overlooked by all the movie awards establishments, he should have at least got a lifetime achievment award. RIP Richard Widmark
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Scofield, Minghella, and now Widmark. Two Oscar winners and an Oscar nominee drop within a week. Fucking shame.
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It is a sad thing when someone, when anyone passes on. But I don't think that it's as sad when an actor, filmmaker what have you that hasn't done anything in like twenty, thirty or more years dies.
They've lived a full life, and made some classic stuff in their time but that's all in the past. It's sad to see a life end, but it's not a tragedy when the person has lived a full life. -
The Long Ships
great legs - even competing with Russ Tamlin
as long as we still have the films we still have him - thank God
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There is no original No Way Out, if by original you're referring to the Kevin Costner remake. No Way Out (Costner's) was a remake of a movie called The Big Clock, based on the novel by Kenneth Fearing.
The No Way Out with Widmark is a completely different movie. -
Like many of you, I loved his acting in "The Bedford Incident" (having been stationed on a destroyer for 5 years) and "The Long Ships". Many others as well....hell, come to think of it, I can't think of him ever doing a bad job in any role.
Bummer. All the bad-ass real men actors seem to be gone. Now all we have are preening pretty boys who think taking off thier shirt gives them cred.
I will miss your characters, Mr. Widmark. I guess you can tear up the streets up there with Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson and crew. -
I know many of the people who post here will not have seen much of Mr. Widmark's work, certainly it shows from some of the comments. Realize that he was an excellent actor and one of the last of his generation still with us. While I look back at the films he did and appreciate the hell out of them, I am reminded of a film he did not do, Viva Max. If you have ever seen this film, it will give you an idea how popular Mr. Widmark was, even in a film that was not a success like The Alamo.
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was on UK telly this afternoon. Yep, it's prety amazing alright.
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Widmark was awesome... He is permanently burnt into my brain as the bad guy in Gene Wilder's 'Hanky Panky'.... Does that movie hold up? I haven't seen it since I was eight years old, but it was one of the first movies in heavy rotation on HBO when I was a wee lad. RIP, sir. You were a scary motherjumper.
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