TELLY SAVALAS BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
 
Telly Savalas was born on January 21st, 1922 in Garden City, Long Island in New York with the birth name Aristotelis Savalas, born to Christina and Nick Savalas.  His parents had five children total and had immigrated to America from Greece.   
 
Savalas became a well known character actor and he is mostwell known for his role as Detective Theo Kojak from the television movie, "Kojak: The Marcus-Nelson Murders" (1973) and the television series that followed, "Kojak".  For this role, he was nominated twice for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and won in 1974.  He also won two Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor in a Television Drama.  
 
After graduating from Sewanhaka High School in Floral Park, New York, Savalas enrolled at Columbia University School of General Studies and after a brief three year stint in the United States Army where he worked for the State Department as a host of the, "Your Voice of  America Series", he returned to college and earned his degree in psychology in 1948.
 
Prior to working as an actor, Savalas worked various odd jobs such as a lifeguard and also directed stage plays in a theater in Connecticut and later he earned a living as a journalist for ABC News.  He was then promoted to executive producer for the, "Gillette Cavalcade of Sports".  His acting career did not begin until the late 1950's with a role on the television show, "Armstrong's Circle Theater" (1959-1960).
 
It did not take long before Savalas caught the attention of Hollywood and appeared as a guest over fifty times before he began adding numerous television appearances to his credits such as, "Breaking Point", "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", "Naked City", "The Twilight Zone", "The Dakotas", "The Untouchables", "Burke's Law", "The Fugitive", "Combat!", "Bonanza", "Empire", "77 Sunset Strip" and "The Eleventh Hour" and a role that really got him noticed, "The Witness".  Burt Lancaster saw him in this series and chose to use Savalas in three films. 
 
Some of his more well know films being, "Mad Dog Coll" (1961), "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962) starring with Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Betty Field, Edmond O'Brien, Whit Bissell and Neville Brand, "The Interns" (1962), "Love is a Ball" (1963) starring Glenn Ford, Hope Lange, Ricardo Montalban and Charles Boyer, "The Greatest Story Ever Told" (1965) with an ensemble cast including Max von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire, Charlton Heston, Martin Landau, David McCallum, Donald Pleasence, Roddy McDowall, Michael Anderson Jr., Jose Ferrer, Joanna Dunham, Ed Wynn, Joseph Schildkraut, Claude Rains and lesser roles played by Michael Ansara, Ina Balin, Carroll Baker, Robert Blake, Pat Boone, Victor Buono, John Considine, Richard Conte, Jamie Farr, David Hedison, Van Heflin, Russell Johnson, Angela Lansbury, Robert Loggia, John Lupton, Sal Mineo, Nehemiah Persoff, Sidney Poitier, Gary Raymond, Paul Stewart, John Wayne, Mark Lenard and Shelley Winters, "Battle of the Bulge" (1965) starring alongside Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Pier Angeli, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews, Robert Woods, George Montgomery, Ty Hardin, James MacArthur and Charles Bronson, "The Dirty Dozen" (1967) starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Webber, Ralph Meeker, George Kennedy, Richard Jaeckel, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker, Charles Bronson, Trini Lopez, John Cassavetes, Jim Brown and Robert Ryan.

Those were soon followed by "The Scalphunters" (1968) starring Burt Lancaster, Ossie Davis, Dabney Coleman, Paul Picerni and Shelley Winters, "Kelly's Heroes" (1970) co-starring Clint Eastwood, Don Rickles, Carroll O'Connor, Donald Sutherland, Harry Dean Stanton, Gavin MacLeod and Stuart Margolin, "Crime Boss" (1972) with Antonio Sabato and Paola Tedesco, "Horror Express" (1972) co-starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, "Capricorn One" (1977) starring Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Sam Waterston, Hal Holbrook, Karen Black, David Doyle, James Karen, James Sikking, Paul Picerni, Robert Walden and David Huddleston, "Escape to Athena" (1979) also starring Roger Moore, David Niven, Stefanie Powers, Claudia Cardinale, Richard Roundtree, Elliott Gould and Sonny Bono and the television movie, "Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story" (1980) with Michael Beck, Art Carney, Alex Karras, Will Sampson, Ronny Cox, Richard Lynch and Robert Davi.  
 
For his role in, "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actor and Savalas was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to the Television Industry.  Television Guide also ranked him in 1996 number 33 on their list of top 50 greatest television stars. 
 
Not only did a succeed as a actor, Savalas also had a talent as a vocalist and had a couple compositions that made the charts such as, "Some Broken Hearts Never Mend" and released the albums,"Telly" (1974) and "Who Loves Ya, Baby" (1976). 
 
In his spare time he had a love for golfing and was also a avid gambler.  He purchased a home in Palm Desert, California to be close to some of the top golf courses in the country.
 
Telly Savalas married three times throughout his lifetime.  His first wife was Katherine Nicolaides whom he wed in 1948 and they had one child together before the marriage came to an end in 1957. His second wife was Marilyn Gardner in 1960 and they had two children before divorcing in 1974.  Savalas then married Julie Honland in 1984 and together they added two more children and remained married until he passed away at the age of seventy two, on January 22nd, 1994 in Universal City, California after suffering from bladder cancer.  His remains are interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.  

Filmography

1995 Backfire! 
1994 Mind Twister 
1992-1993 The Commish
1991-1993 Ein Schloß am Wörthersee
1991 Kojak: Fatal Flaw
1991 Rose Against the Odds
1990 Kojak: None So Blind 
1990 Kojak: It's Always Something 
1990 Kojak: Flowers for Matty 
1989 The Hollywood Detective
1989 Kojak: Ariana
1988 The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission 
1987 J.J. Starbuck
1987 Faceless
1987 The Equalizer
1987 Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission
1987 Kojak: The Price of Justice
1986 GoBots: War of the Rock Lords
1985 Alice in Wonderland 
1985 George Burns Comedy Week 
1985 Kojak: The Belarus File
1985 The Love Boat 
1984 The Cartier Affair 
1984 Cannonball Run II
1982 Fake-Out
1982 My Palikari
1981 Tales of the Unexpected
1981 Hellinger's Law
1980 Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story
1980 Border Cop 
1979 The French Atlantic Affair
1979 The Muppet Movie
1979 Beyond the Poseidon Adventure 
1979 Escape to Athena 
1973-1978 Kojak
1978 Capricorn One
1977 Beyond Reason 
1976 Killer Force
1975 Inside Out
1975 Am laufenden Band 
1974 Lisa and the Devil
1973 She Cried Murder
1973 Senza ragione
1973 Crime Boss
1972 A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die
1972 Horror Express 
1972 Vendetta
1972 Visions...
1972 L'assassino...
1972 Sonny and Jed
1971 Mongo's Back in Town
1971 Clay Pigeon
1971 A Town Called Hell
1971 ITV Saturday Night Theatre 
1971 Pretty Maids All in a Row
1970 The Red Skelton Hour
1970 The Family 
1970 Kelly's Heroes
1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service
1969 Land Raiders
1969 Sophie's Place
1969 Mackenna's Gold
1969 The Assassination Bureau
1968 Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell
1968 The Scalphunters
1968 Sol Madrid
1967 Cimarron Strip
1967 Garrison's Gorillas
1967 Cosa Nostra, Arch Enemy of the FBI
1967 The Dirty Dozen 
1967 Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
1967 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 
1967 The F.B.I. 
1964-1967 Combat!
1966 Beau Geste
1964-1966 The Fugitive
1966 The Virginian
1965 The Slender Thread
1965 Battle of the Bulge 
1965 Run for Your Life
1965 Bonanza 
1965 Genghis Khan 
1965 John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! 
1963-1965 Burke's Law 
1965 The Greatest Story Ever Told 
1964 The Rogues 
1964 The New Interns 
1964 Kraft Suspense Theatre 
1964 Breaking Point 
1964 The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
1964 Arrest and Trial 
1964 Channing
1964 Fanfare for a Death Scene
1963 Twilight Zone
1963 77 Sunset Strip
1963 Johnny Cool 
1963 Grindl
1963 Love Is a Ball 
1963 The Man from the Diners' Club 
1963 Empire
1963 The Dakotas
1963 The Eleventh Hour
1960-1963 The Untouchables 
1962 Alcoa Premiere
1962 The Interns 
1962 Birdman of Alcatraz 
1962 Cape Fear 
1961-1962 Cain's Hundred
1961 Ben Casey 
1961 The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor
1961 The Dick Powell Theatre 
1961 King of Diamonds 
1961 The New Breed 
1961 The Young Savages 
1961 Mad Dog Coll
1961 Acapulco 
1961 The Aquanauts 
1961 Macbeth 
1961 The Sin of Jesus 
1960 The United States Steel Hour 
1960 Naked City
1960 The Witness
1959-1960 Armstrong Circle Theatre
1960 Diagnosis: Unknown
1959 Sunday Showcase