He returned to radio drama decades later, performing on "CBS Radio Mystery Theater" (1974–82), and was also one of the five hosts on "Sears Radio Theater" (as the Friday "adventure night" host) from 1979–81. Widmark appeared on Broadway in 1943 in F. Hugh Herbert's "Kiss and Tell" and in William Saroyan's "Get Away Old Man," directed by George Abbott, which ran for 13 performances. He was unable to join the military during World War II because of a perforated eardrum. He was in Chicago appearing in a stage production of "Dream Girl" with June Havoc when 20th Century Fox signed him to a seven-year contract. Widmark's first movie appearance was in "Kiss of Death" (1947), as the giggling, sociopathic villain Tommy Udo. In his most notorious scene, Udo pushed a woman in a wheelchair (played by Mildred Dunnock) down a flight of stairs to her death. Widmark was almost not cast. He said, "The director, Henry Hathaway, didn't want me. I have a high forehead; he thought I looked too intellectual." Hathaway was overruled by studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck. "Hathaway gave me kind of a bad time," recalled Widmark. "Kiss of Death" was a commercial and critical success: Widmark won the Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actor, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. Widmark followed "Kiss of Death" with other villainous performances in "The Street with No Name", "Road House", and the Western "Yellow Sky" (all 1948), the latter film with Gregory Peck and Anne Baxter. Another standout villainous role was in the racial melodrama "No Way Out" (1950), with Sidney Poitier in his film debut. Widmark and Poitier became good friends and worked in a number of films together in later years. Widmark played heroic roles in films, including "Down to the Sea in Ships", "Slattery's Hurricane" (both 1949), and Elia Kazan's "Panic in the Streets" (1950). He also featured in "Halls of Montezuma" (1951) and "Don't Bother to Knock" (1952) (with Marilyn Monroe), and appeared in two films for director Samuel Fuller: "Pickup on South Street" (1953) and "Hell and High Water" (1954).