Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas

 Aristotelis "Telly" Savalas (January 21, 1922 – January 22, 1994)

Savalas was a singer and character actor whose career spanned four decades of television. He was noted for his deep, gravelly voice and his bald head. He also released the one-hit wonder song, "If?," which he introduced in the UK in 1975. Savalas's career began in films in 1961. His movie credits include The Young Savages (1961), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Battle of the Bulge (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Scalphunters (1968), supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971), Inside Out (1975), and Escape to Athena (1979). He then continued achieving success in the television crime drama Kojak (1973–1978), co-starring his real-life brother George Savalas, in which Savalas played the title role. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Birdman of Alcatraz (1962). Savalas also served three years (1943–1946) in the United States Army during World War II, working for the US State Department as host of the Your Voice of America series, then at ABC News, before beginning an acting career in his late thirties. In 1950, Savalas hosted a radio show called The Coffeehouse in New York City. In the late 1970s, Savalas narrated three United Kingdom travelogues titled Telly Savalas Looks at Portsmouth, Telly Savalas Looks at Aberdeen and Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham. These were produced by Harold Baim and were examples of quota quickies which were then part of a requirement that cinemas in the United Kingdom show a set percentage of British produced films. He also hosted the 1989 video UFOs and Channeling. In the 1980s and early 1990s, Savalas appeared in commercials for the Players' Club Gold Card. In 1982, along with Bob Hope and Linda Evans, he participated in the "world premiere" television ad introducing Diet Coke to America. After Savalas came back to reprise his role on Kojak in the 1980s, he began to lose close relatives. George Savalas, his brother who played Detective Stavros on the original Kojak series, died in 1985 of leukemia at age 60. His mother Christina, who had always been his best friend, supporter, and devoted parent, died in 1988. Later that year, Savalas was diagnosed with transitional cell cancer of the bladder. While undergoing treatment, he continued to act, including a recurring role on The Commish. Savalas died on January 22, 1994, just one day after his 72nd birthday, of complications of cancer of the bladder and prostate. He is buried at Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills.