Richard Widmark, who debuted in Kiss of Death died at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, after a long illness. He was 93 and is survived by his wife, Susan Blanchard, and his daughter, Anne Heath Widmark, who was married to baseball player Sandy Koufax. Widmark would win an Academy Award for best supporting actor for his role in Kiss of Death as Tommy Udo, who enjoyed pushing old ladies down the stairs.

But in real life, Widmark who made over 75 films, was a great guy. Widmark was embarrassed to play the racist character in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s No Way Out and would apologize to Sidney Poitier, with whom he became friends, after shooting scenes. The film was critical of of racism.

In Judgment at Nuremberg, which starred Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Montgomery Clift, and William Shatner and was directed by stars Stanley Kramer, Widmark played Col. Tad Lawson who prosecutes four Nazi judges. Although the real Nuremberg trials, whose defendants which included the notorious Hermann Goering, Albert Speer, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Rudolf Hess, took place in 1945, they are relevant 60 years later. In a sinister manipulation of history, some are arguing the the proceedings against the Guantanamo Bay detainees are the modern equivalent of the trials against the Nazi’s. But as writer, journalist and constitutional law authority Nat Hentoff pointed out earlier this month, this is an unfair and inaccurate comparison.: “The Nazis had vigorous lawyers waging their defense; they were able to talk to lawyers in private without a video camera watching; and all their correspondence and notes were not handed over to the military.” Sadly, this country is violating international law in the name of so called justice.

So and help stop the illegal and cruel detentions, disappearances and torture by visiting Amnesty International’s Tear It Down campaign