MARILYN MONROE - GOLDEN GLOBE-WINNING HOLLYWOOD ACTOR RICHARD WIDMARK DIES

Hollywood actor Richard Widmark has died at the age of 93, according to reports.

The New York Times newspaper said his wife Susan Blanchard had confirmed Widmark's death from their home in Roxbury, Connecticut on Monday.

Widmark made his name on the big screen in the 1947 movie Kiss of Death, in which he played a psychopathic gangster.

He won a most promising newcomer Golden Globe for his role as Tommy Udo in the film and also received an Academy Award nomination, achievements which would not be matched in the 60-odd films which followed in his lengthy career.

Despite the enduringly haunting manic giggle of his character Udo, uttered most memorably as he pushed a wheelchair-bound victim down a flight of stairs, the actor from Illinois prospered throughout his career.

He appeared alongside stars including Marilyn Monroe, Spencer Tracy and Gregory Peck in films including Hell and High Water, Cheyenne Autumn and Murder on the Orient Express.

One of the works of which he was most proud was Judgment at Nuremburg, a fictionalised version of the trial of Nazi war criminals after the second world war.

His later career saw an appearance as the eponymous Madigan in the early 1970s, a six-episode television drama, and a role as US secretary of state in Who Dares Wins.