Actor Richard Widmark an actor has been died following a brief illness, his wife Susan Blanchard said on Wednesday.She said a fractured vertebrae Widmark suffered in a fall last year was the beginning of his illness.

He 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.

Widmark was blond & slightly built during his prime & brought an edgy nervousness to the outcasts & heavies he played in Hollywood’s film noir heyday a list of roles that The New York Times once described as a “gallery of reprobates”.

Richard Widmark’s friend Karl Malden said, “He was a damn good actor. He knew what he was doing, he could do it well & he hated anyone he worked with who wasn’t prepared because he came ready to go”.

Malden said, “His creative work is indelible on film & will be there to remind us of what he was as an artist & a human being. He was a down-to-earth guy & I respected him for that. He was a real guy, but he was such a wonderful actor”.

A.C. Lyles, a producer with Paramount Pictures, worked with Widmark on the 1975 western “The Last Day” said, “Richard Widmark was just one of the nicest guys I ever worked with: very, very professional, very, very prepared & he couldn’t have been more
cooperative”.

A.C. Lyles said, “He would have little comments to make during rehearsal about a scene & it was never a suggestion that would enhance him. It was always to enhance someone else in the scene & I thought that was very courageous of him”.

Lyles said, “I know I’ve made kind of a half-assed career out of violence, but I abhor violence. I am an ardent supporter of gun control. It seems incredible to me that we are the only civilized nation that does not put some effective control on guns”.