Tribute overdue for living legend

TOM TITUS

Hollywood delights in honoring its own. The American Film Institute,

for instance, hands out a lifetime achievement award annually,

celebrating the career of one of Tinsletown’s living legends.

The industry has bestowed “lifetime awards” on such “kids” as Tom

Cruise and Tom Hanks, who are barely on the shady side of 40 and

whose careers certainly haven’t reached the twilight phase.

If Hollywood is running out of deserving performers to celebrate,

attention is hereby called to a true living legend -- an actor who

has ranked among the finest in his profession for nearly half a

century and recently celebrated his 90th birthday.

Richard Widmark is, thankfully, still among us, and it’s high time

Hollywood took notice. Here is an actor who virtually defined film

noir in the 1940s, then typified the authoritarian military figure

through much of the rest of his career. That is ironic, since Widmark

was actually rejected for military service due to a punctured

eardrum.

Widmark burst into moviegoers’ consciousness in 1947 as the

cackling psychotic killer Tommy Udo in “Kiss of Death,” a piece of

screen larceny that left the movie’s star, Victor Mature, in the dust

-- and inspired the creation of Tommy Udo fan clubs across the

country. This begat a series of noir roles in movies such as “Road

House,” “Night and the City,” “The Street With No Name” and “Panic in

the Streets.”

He portrayed a succession of evildoers into the ‘50s, before he

“joined” the military for star turns in such compelling films as

“Take the High Ground,” “Halls of Montezuma,” “Hell and High Water,”

“The Bedford Incident,” “Time Limit,” “Cheyenne Autumn,” “Two Rode

Together” and “Judgment at Nuremberg.” Not all of his military

characters were memorable (see “The Swarm”), but it’s safe to say he

won as many cinematic military battles as John Wayne (another

real-life 4F), if not more.

Widmark’s trademark, from the start, was a sardonic grin

underscored by a clipped passage of dialogue that left his adversary

in virtual meltdown. He defined toughness and resolve, but did so in

a manner that often suggested folksiness -- until he administered the

verbal killer thrust.

Widmark never won an Oscar, but he deserved several. Maximillian

Schell was honored for his histrionics in “Judgment at Nuremberg,”

but check out Widmark’s dynamic performance as Schell’s prosecuting

attorney adversary. His scary basic training platoon sergeant in

“Take the High Ground,” and his obsessed ship captain in “The Bedford

Incident” are vintage and classic Widmark roles, military figures who

are, as the actor himself admits in a scene from “High Ground,” a

little “tilted.”

When Marilyn Monroe first appeared on the scene, her best

performance was opposite Widmark in “Don’t Bother to Knock.” He

virtually swiped “The Alamo” from Wayne in the guise of a tipsy Jim

Bowie. His overlooked elder brother in “Broken Lance” and his

troubled psychiatrist in “The Cobweb” were “branching out” roles --

veering away, though not too far, from his familiar intensive style.

He even took a stab at comedy -- definitely not his forte -- in

“Tunnel of Love” with Doris Day.

In his later years, in Agatha Christie’s “Murder on the Orient

Express,” all of the other stars were murderers, while the frosty

millionaire played by Widmark was the “murderee.” As an FBI agent, he

doggedly pursued a deranged Timothy Bottoms in “Rollercoaster.”

In one of his signature movie roles, his title cop in “Madigan”

(1968) was killed, but four years later, the character was exhumed

for a short-lived TV series, one of the actor’s few such endeavors.

Widmark even made it to the Oval Office, playing the president on TV

in 1971 in “Vanished.”

For sports trivia buffs, Widmark also is the father-in-law of

former Dodgers pitching ace Sandy Koufax.

Widmark last appeared on screen 14 years ago as a senator in “True

Colors” -- and as a nonagenarian, he’s not likely to be gearing up

for a comeback. But he’s earned the right for one more visit to the

spotlight as the subject of an AFI or Kennedy Center honors special.

Are you listening, Hollywood? Let’s show our appreciation of

Richard Widmark’s tremendous career while he’s still around to savor

the honor.

*

The Academy for the Performing Arts is tuning up for its annual

Classical Spring Music Concert next Thursday in the Huntington Beach

High School auditorium.

Only one performance will be given, at 7:30 p.m., under the

direction of Greg Gilboe. Selections will be performed by large and

small ensembles.

Tickets are $9 for general admission and $7 for students and

senior citizens. Reservations are being taken at (714) 536-2514, ext.

4025.

* TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Independent.