Telly Savalas

Telly Savalas
Telly Savalas, 1973
Born	Aristotelis Savalas January 21, 1922 Garden City, New York, U.S.
Died	January 22, 1994(1994-01-22) (aged 72) Universal City, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Prostate cancer Bladder cancer
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Columbia University
Occupations	Actor singer
Years active	1950 – 1994
Known for	Kojak
Spouse(s)	Katherine Nicolaides (1948-1957; divorced), Marilyn Gardner (1960-1974; divorced), Julie Hovland (1984-1994; his death)

Telly Savalas (January 21, 1922 – January 22, 1994) was an American actor and singer. He is best known from playing the character Kojak in a television series and many television movies. He was born in Garden City, New York; his parents were Greek Americans.

Career

Early in his career, he played different characters like the detective in Cape Fear (1962), with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, and the role of Feto Gomez in Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), he would win the Academy Award as supporting actor.

One of his best roles in his career was that of Pontius Pilate, in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965). For his role, he shaved his head.

Then co-star in war movies Battle of the Bulge (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), with Lee Marvin, Telly played the role of a religious fanatic convict, who is elected by Lee Marvin for a suicidal mission., and Kelly's Heroes (1970), with Clint Eastwood and directed by Brian G. Hutton.

He was then personified as the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in the James Bond saga, On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969).

In the 1970s Savalas worked in Europe with some success in movies as Città violenta (1970), with Charles Bronson, A Town Called Bastard (1971), with Jack Palance, La banda J.S.: Cronaca criminale del Far West (1972), Horror Express (1972) with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, Senza ragione (1973). and the movie by Mario Bava, Lisa e il diavolo (1974).

In the late 70s and early 1980s, Savalas worked on movies including Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979), Cannonball Run II (1984).

Television

In 1963 he was on an episode of The Twilight Zone. In 1973 CBS hired him to play the role of a Lieutenant, member of the police detective in New York, in production for CBS television: The Marcus-Nelson Murders. Has a success out of the ordinary and the producers decided to turn it into a television series.

Seven TV movies were made in the series Kojak: Kojak: The Belarus File (1985), Kojak: The Price of Justice (1987), Kojak: Ariana (1989), Kojak: Fatal Flaw (1991), Kojak: Flowers for Matty (1990), Kojak: It's Always Something (1990) and Kojak: None So Blind (1990).

He won an Emmy Award for Kojak.

He also starred in TV movie productions Mongo's Back in Town (1972), She Cried Murder (1973), Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story (1980), Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission (1987), The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988), The Hollywood Detective (1989).

Filmography

Movie

Year	Títle	Role	Note
1961	Mad Dog Coll	Lt. Darro
	The Young Savages	Detective Lt. Gunderson
1962	Cape Fear	Private Detective Charles Sievers
	Birdman of Alcatraz	Feto Gomez	Oscar Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Telly Savalas)
1963	The Man from the Diners' Club	Foots Pulardos
	Love Is a Ball	Dr. Christian Gump
1964	The New Interns	Dr. Dominick 'Dom' Riccio
1965	The Greatest Story Ever Told	Pontius Pilate
	Genghis Khan	Shan
	Battle of the Bulge	Sgt. Guffy
	The Slender Thread	Dr. Joe Coburn
1966	Beau Geste	Sgt. Maj. Dagineau
1967	The Dirty Dozen	Archer Maggott
	Sol Madrid	Emil Dietrich
	The Scalphunters	Jim Howie
1968	Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell	Walter Braddock
1969	The Assassination Bureau	Lord Bostwick
	Mackenna's Gold	Sgt. Tibbs
	Crooks and Coronets	Herbie Haseler
	Land Raiders	Vince Carden
	On Her Majesty's Secret Service	Ernst Stavro Blofeld
1970	Kelly's Heroes	MSgt. Big Joe
	Città violenta	Al Weber
1971	Pretty Maids All in a Row	Captain Sam Surcher
	A Town Called Bastard	Don Carlos
	Clay Pigeon	Redford
1972	La banda J.S.: Cronaca criminale del Far West	Sheriff Franciscus
	Mongo's Back in Town (TV movie)	Lieutenant Pete Tolstad
	Pancho Villa	Pancho Villa
	Horror Express	Captain Kazan
	Una ragione per vivere e una per morire	Maj. Ward
1973	I familiari delle vittime non saranno avvertiti	Don Vincenzo
	The Marcus-Nelson Murders (TV movie)	Lt. Theo Kojak
1973/1978	Kojak (TV series)	Lt. Theo Kojak	118 episodes
1974	Lisa e il diavolo	Leandro
1975	L'assassino... è al telefono	Ranko Drasovic
	Inside Out	Harry Morgan
1976	Killer Force	Webb
1977	Beyond Reason	Dr. Nicholas Mati
1978	Capricorn One	Albain
1979	Escape to Athena	Captain Stefan Svevo
	The Muppet Movie	Sleezo Tough
1980	The Border	Frank Cooper
1982	Fake-Out
1984	Cannonball Run II	Hymie Kaplan
1985	Kojak: The Belarus File (TV movie)	Lieutenant Theo Kojak
1987	Kojak: The Price of Justice (TV movie)	Inspector Kojak
	Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission (TV movie)	Maj. Wright
	Faceless	Terry Hallen
1988	The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (TV movie)	Maj. Wright
1989	Kojak: Ariana (TV movie)	Inspector Kojak
	The Hollywood Detective (TV movie)	Harry Bell
1990	Kojak: Flowers for Matty (TV movie)	Inspector Theo Kojak
	Kojak: It's Always Something (TV movie)	Inspector Theo Kojak
	Kojak: None So Blind (TV movie)	Inspector Theo Kojak
1991	Kojak: Fatal Flaw (TV movie)	Inspector Theo Kojak
1994	Mind Twister	Richard Howland

Other websites

• Official site Archived 2010-01-28 at the Wayback Machine
• Savalas.TV - Who loves ya, baby?
• TellySavalas.de - German Infoside Archived 2022-03-27 at the Wayback Machine
• TellySavalas.com
• Telly Savalas on IMDb
• Telly Savalas at TV.com
• Telly Savalas at Find a Grave