Richard Widmark became a household name following his first film, Kiss Of Death, in which he played giggling psychopath Tommy Udo.In that 1947 film – for which he was nominated for an Oscar – he tied up an old woman in a wheelchair and pushed her down a flight of stairs.
He went on to play a string of mass murderers before getting a wider variety of roles in dozens of films including The Alamo, in which he starred with John Wayne, Judgement At Nuremberg and Murder On The Orient Express.
Widmark started acting in theatre and on radio before hitting Hollywood.
Despite his many violent roles, he said: “I know I’ve made kind of a career out of violence, but I abhor violence.”
Widmark’s wife Susan Blanchard said the actor fractured a vertebra recently and that his condition then deteriorated.
She said: “It was a big shock, but he was 93.”
