The death of Richard Widmark on Wednesday at 93 marked the passing of one of the last great postwar movie stars. Only a few remain -- living treasures like Kirk Douglas, Maureen O'Hara, Eli Wallach, Ernest Borgnine, Karl Malden and not many more.

Widmark was amazing; he could convince you he was a cowboy, a sailor or a more conventional type, too. A native of Sunrise, Minnesota, he came to NY in 1938 when radio dramas were at their height; it was the year, after all, that Orson Welles, spooked America with his "war of the worlds" broadcast and scores of radio dramas were the country's main entertainment between movies.

The young actor found work in that medium and on Broadway. He was billed 17th in something called "Kiss and Tell" at the Biltmore Theatre, which is still in use. On march 17, 1943. He was ‘Lieutenant Lenny Archer’ and luckily for him “Kiss and Tell” ran 956 performances. His next job was in November, 1944 when this reporter was just 18 days old, by the way, in a show called "Get Away Old Man" which featured future character star Ed Begley, who would be one of the movies' "12 Angry Men" 13 years later. But it only ran 13 performances and is otherwise forgotten today.

On to three other shows, "Trio, "Kiss Them For Me" and " Dunnigan's Daughter," before his movie career began. It was "Kiss Of Death," his 1947 screen debut, which provided him with his most famous character, the killer with a trademark chilling laugh as he pushed a wheelchair-bound elderly lady down a flight of stairs to her death. He earned an Oscar nomination that year.

Some of his other memorable movies were "Panic In The Street,” “No Way Out," "The Hall of Montezuma," “The Frogmen," “Destination Gobi," "Saint Joan" (miscast, alas, as the dauphin for director Otto Preminger), "Two Rode Together" and "Judgement at Nuremberg" as a prosecutor of Nazi war criminals. I loved his work in "How the West Was Won" in 1963 as a gruff railroad boss, determined to lay track for the transcontinental railroad at a furious pace -- even if it meant encroaching on sacred Indian land. Other films included "Murder On The Orient Express," "Twilight's Last Gleaming," two “National Lampoon Movies," the otherwise-unbearable "The Alamo" for director and costar John Wayne (Widmark played Jim Bowie), and a superb cold war drama called "The Bedford Incident" with Sidney Poitier. He was also, for a few years, the father-in-law of baseball hall-of-famer Sandy Koufax.

Richard Widmark was one of the most dependable and durable Hollywood stars of a bygone era has died.