‘Kojak’ Star Telly Savalas Dies at 70

Telly Savalas, the gruff, hairless actor who became a television favorite as the lollipop-loving New York detective in the 1970s series “Kojak,” died Saturday of prostate cancer. He was 70.

Savalas died in his suite at the Sheraton-Universal Hotel in Universal City, said Mike Mamakos, a spokesman.

“I loved him dearly. He was a wonderful man,” Mamakos said.

Savalas had undergone treatment for prostate cancer at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena.

“Who loves ya, baby?” which Kojack muttered to fellow cops and assorted hoodlums, grew into the detective’s signature and a national catch phrase.

The series grew out of an acclaimed TV movie, “The Marcus-Nelson Murders,” based on the real-life brutal murders of two young career women in Manhattan.

“Kojak” broke into the top-10 rated shows in its first season, 1972-73. Savalas won the Emmy as best actor in a dramatic series the following season. The series lasted until 1978, setting the standard for gritty, realistic cop shows such as “Hill Street Blues” and “NYPD Blue.”

Savalas, who intentionally shaved his head, became indelibly identified as Lt. Theo Kojak, and he remained grateful for the recognition. “I made 60 movies before ‘Kojak’ with some of the biggest names in the business, and people would still say, ‘There goes what’s-his-name.’ ”

He was born Aristotle (Telly is the diminutive) Savalas in Garden City, N.Y. He became expert at clouding his age as well as his early life, often telling fanciful tales. He claimed that his entrepreneur father “was a millionaire five times and a pauper six.”

Young Telly grew up with four brothers and one sister in a large, volatile Greek family in which “it wasn’t so much strong discipline as strong love that kept us in line.” The boy was in and out of Catholic schools, depending on his father’s fortunes. He remained vague about his three-year service in World War II.

After the war he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and went through a series of jobs: writing for the U.S. State Department Information Service, directing news broadcasts at ABC, directing at a Stamford, Conn., playhouse, teaching adult education in his hometown.

In 1959, just as he was despairing for his future, an agent called, seeking someone who could speak a European accent in a live TV show.

“The second show I did on TV, I was the lead,” he told an interviewer in 1973. “I made $900 and I was having fun saying some other guy’s words. This is a dangerous profession for the ego.”

His television career continued, mainly in hoodlum roles. Burt Lancaster provided Savalas’ first important film role in 1961, as a police detective in “The Young Savages,” about Harlem crime. The following year he appeared in Lancaster’s “Birdman of Alcatraz” as a sadistic convict. The role won him an Academy Award nomination as supporting actor.

Savalas became one of Hollywood’s busiest character actors, usually in hard-bitten roles. The films include: “Johnny Cool,” “The New Interns,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” “Genghis Khan,” “Battle of the Bulge,” “The Slender Thread,” “Beau Geste,” “The Dirty Dozen,” “The Scalphunters,” “Mackenzie’s Gold” and “Kelly’s Heroes.”