Telly Savalas

In 1948, he married his long-time girlfriend and college sweetheart, Katherine Nicolaides. The couple divorced in 1957.

In 1960, he married Mariln Gardner, a theatre teacher with whom he has two children. However, the couple got divorced in 1974.

In 1984, he married his third wife Julie Hovland, with whom he has two children.

Telly Savalas was the second of the five children born to Christina, an artist and Nick Savalas, a restaurant owner, in New York.

In 1940, he graduated from the Sewanhaka High School, New York, after which he worked as a lifeguard.

In 1941, he served in the United States Army during World War II and subsequently, left the army in order to complete his education.

In 1948, he graduated from Columbia University School of General Studies, where he majored in English, radio and psychology.

In the 1950s, he gained experience in production, while he hosted the ‘Your Voice of America’ series, an ABC radio show. The show garnered widespread attention and thereafter, he was signed on as the executive producer for the show, ‘Telly's Coffee House’.

In 1959, he got his first break in acting in, ‘And Bring Home a Baby’, an episode of ‘Armstrong Circle Theatre’, which ran on the CBS Network.

From 1959 to 1967, he made a number of guest appearances in ‘Naked City’, ‘The Eleventh Hour’, ‘The Untouchables’, ‘The Fugitive’, ‘Breaking Point’, ‘Bonanza’, ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E’ and ‘The F.B.I’.

He played the role of ‘Brother Hendricksen’ in ‘77 Sunset Strip’, a private detective drama series and also appeared on ‘Acapulco’, an NBC adventure series.

In 1961, he was cast as ‘Detective Gunderson’ in ‘The Young Savages’, a crime- drama film directed by John Frankenheimer. The following year, he earned an Academy Award-nomination for his role as the sadistic, ‘Feto Gomez’ in ‘Birdman of Alcatraz’.

He played the title role of ‘Theo Kojak’ in the television series ‘Kojak’. TV Guide placed his character at the number 18 position on the list of ‘50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time’. The series became so popular that it was adapted into a television series and was broadcast on the USA Network cable channel and on ITV4 channel, U.K.