telly savalas

Best known as the bald-headed, elegantly dressed, hard-as-nails yet lollipop-wielding NYC police Lieutenant "Kojak" (CBS, 1973-77), this talented veteran actor gained life experience with a three-year stint in the Army during WWII, working for the U.S. State Department hosting the "Your Voice of America" series and then at ABC News before beginning an acting career in his late 30s. As first executive director and then senior director of news special events at ABC, Savalas became an executive producer for the "Gillette calvalcade of Sports", where he gave Howard Cosell his first job.