Richard Weedt Widmark was born in Sunrise Township, Minnesota, to Ethel Mae (Barr) and Carl Henry Widmark. His father was of Swedish descent and his mother of English and Scottish ancestry. Widmark developed a passion for cinema at a young age, claiming, "I've been a movie bug since I was 4. My grandmother used to take me". He was thrilled by Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931) and thought Boris Karloff was great.
Widmark attended Lake Forest College, where he initially intended to become a lawyer. However, he won the lead role in a college production of the play "Counsellor-at-Law" and the acting bug bit deep. After taking his bachelor of arts degree in 1936, he stayed on at Lake Forest as the Assistant Director of Speech and Drama. However, he soon quit the job and moved to New York to become an actor.
Widmark made his Broadway debut in 1943 in the play "Kiss and Tell" and continued to appear on stage in roles that were light-years away from the tough cookies he would play in his early movies. After World War II, he was signed by 20th Century-Fox to a seven-year contract. His screen test for the role of Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death (1947) impressed Darryl F. Zanuck, who insisted that Widmark be cast as the psychopath in the film.
Widmark's performance in Kiss of Death (1947) earned him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe award. He went on to play psychotics in The Street with No Name (1948) and Road House (1948) and held his own against new Fox superstar Gregory Peck in the William A. Wellman western Yellow Sky (1948). When his contract with Fox expired, Widmark formed his own company, Heath Productions, and began to appear in more westerns, adventures, and social dramas.
Widmark continued to make his mark in movies and television throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He appeared in films such as Madigan (1968),Murder on the Orient Express (1974),Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977),and The Domino Principle (1977). He even came back as a heavy, playing the villainous doctor in Coma (1978).
In 1971, Widmark turned to television, starring as the President of the U.S. in the TV miniseries Vanished (1971). His performance in the role brought Widmark an Emmy nomination. He resurrected the character of Madigan for NBC in six 90-minute episodes that appeared as part of the rotation of "NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie" for the fall 1972 season.
Widmark was married for 55 years to playwright Jean Hazlewood, from 1942 until her death in 1997 (they had one child, Anne, who was born in 1945). He lived quietly and avoided the press, saying in 1971, "I think a performer should do his work and then shut up".
