Telly Savalas

**Aristotelis Telly Savalass** (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

|Year|Títle|Role|Note||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan=2|1961|_Mad Dog Coll_|Lt. Darro||
|_The Young Savages_|Detective Lt. Gunderson||||
|rowspan=2|1962|_Cape Fear_|Private Detective Charles Sievers||
|_Birdman of Alcatraz_|Feto Gomez|Oscar Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Telly Savalas)|||
|rowspan=2|1963|_The Man from the Diners' Club_|Foots Pulardos||
|_Love Is a Ball_|Dr. Christian Gump||||
|1964|_The New Interns_|Dr. Dominick 'Dom' Riccio|||
|rowspan=4|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|||
|rowspan=3|1967|_The Dirty Dozen_|Archer Maggott||
|_Sol Madrid_|Emil Dietrich||||
|_The Scalphunters_|Jim Howie||||
|1968|_Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell_|Walter Braddock|||
|rowspan=5|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||||
|rowspan=2|1970|_Kelly's Heroes_|MSgt. Big Joe||
|_Città violenta_|Al Weber||||
|rowspan=3|1971|_Pretty Maids All in a Row_|Captain Sam Surcher||
|_A Town Called Bastard_|Don Carlos||||
|_Clay Pigeon_|Redford||||
|rowspan=5|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||||
|rowspan=2|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|||
|rowspan=2|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|||
|rowspan=2|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|||
|rowspan=3|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|||
|rowspan=2|1989|_Kojak: Ariana_ (TV movie)|Inspector Kojak||
|_The Hollywood Detective_ (TV movie)|Harry Bell||||
|rowspan=3|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
- Savalas.TV - Who loves ya, baby?
- TellySavalas.de - German Infoside
- TellySavalas.com

## Infobox (person)

- **name**: Telly Savalas
- **image**: Telly Savalas Kojak 1973.JPG
- **caption**: Telly Savalas, 1973
- **birth name**: Aristotelis Savalas
- **birth date**: January 21, 1922
- **birth place**: Garden City, New York, United States, U.S.
- **death place**: Universal City, California, U.S.
- **death cause**: Prostate cancer
Bladder cancer
- **nationality**: American
- **known for**: Kojak
- **years active**: 1950 – 1994
- **spouse**: Katherine Nicolaides (1948-1957; divorced),
Marilyn Gardner (1960-1974; divorced),
Julie Hovland (1984-1994; his death)
- **alma mater**: Columbia University