Savalas' other films include: Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Genghis Khan (1965), Battle of the Bulge (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Horror Express (1972), Lisa and the Devil (1974), Escape to Athena (1979), Border Cop (1980) and Mind Twister (1993).

He won a spelling bee there in 1934; due to an oversight, he did not receive his prize until 1991, when the school principal and the Boston Herald awarded it to him.

This affected Savalas so much that he spent the rest of his life promoting water safety, and later made all six of his children take swimming lessons.

[17][18] Before his acting career took off, Savalas directed Scott Vincent and Howard Cosell in Report to New York, WABC-TV's first regularly scheduled news program in fall 1959.

[20] He quickly became much in demand as a guest star on TV shows, appearing in Sunday Showcase, Diagnosis: Unknown, Dow Hour of Great Mysteries (an adaptation of The Cat and the Canary), Naked City (alongside Claude Rains), The Witness (playing Lucky Luciano in one episode and Al Capone in another), The United States Steel Hour, and The Aquanauts.

[23] His work had impressed fellow actor Burt Lancaster, who arranged for Savalas to be cast in the John Frankenheimer-directed The Young Savages (also 1961 and again playing a cop).

[24] In one of his most acclaimed performances, Savalas reunited with Lancaster and Frankenheimer for Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), where he was nominated for the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.

[25] Savalas also guest-starred in a number of TV series during the decade including The New Breed, The Detectives, Ben Casey, The Twilight Zone (the episode "Living Doll"),[23] The Fugitive, and Arrest and Trial among others.

He reunited with Burt Lancaster and Sydney Pollack in the Western The Scalphunters (1968), and also featured in the comedy Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (also 1968)—noted as one of his favorite roles—and the all-star action movie Mackenna's Gold (1969), his third film for J. Lee Thompson.

He continued to appear in films during the 1970s including Kelly's Heroes (1970) (with Clint Eastwood); Clay Pigeon (1971); and several European features such as Violent City (1970) (with Charles Bronson); A Town Called Bastard (1971); Horror Express (with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee); A Reason to Live, a Reason to Die; the title role in Pancho Villa (all 1972); and Redneck (1973).

Although the lollipop gimmick was added to indulge his sweet tooth, Savalas also smoked heavily onscreen—cigarettes, cigarillos, and cigars—throughout the first season's episodes.

The show maintained a high quality to the end, mixing tension with some laughs and always anxious to tackle civic issues, one of its raisons d'etre in the first place.

Bobby Crocker, whose on-screen chemistry with Savalas was a success story of 1970s television,[35] and Dan Frazer as Captain Frank McNeil.

Savalas was unhappy about the show's demise[37] but got the chance to reprise the Kojak persona in several television movies, starting in 1985.

[38][39] The first film, subtitled The Belarus File and broadcast in February 1985, reunited Savalas with several of his co-stars from the series: younger brother George, Dan Frazer, Mark Russell (Det.

[40][41] A further six Kojak TV movies were produced, titled The Price of Justice (1987),[42] Ariana, Fatal Flaw (both 1989), Flowers for Matty, It's Always Something—with Kevin Dobson reprising his role of Bobby Crocker, now an assistant district attorney—and None So Blind (all 1990).

[43][44] Savalas wrote, directed, and starred in the 1977 independent thriller Beyond Reason, but the film was not released in cinemas; it was made available only on home media in 1985.

[45] Savalas was part of an all-star cast in the movies Escape to Athena, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (both 1979), and Cannonball Run II (1984), and continued to appear in a number of film and television guest roles during the 1980s, including Border Cop (1980) and Faceless (1988), the series Tales of the Unexpected (1981), and two episodes each of The Love Boat (1985) and The Equalizer (1987); the latter series was produced by James McAdams, who had also produced Kojak.

Savalas was the lead actor in the TV movie Hellinger's Law (1981), which was originally planned as a pilot for a series, but ultimately never materialized.

They 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.

In 1982, along with Bob Hope and Linda Evans, he participated in the "world premiere" television ad introducing Diet Coke to Americans.

[54] On October 28, 1987, Savalas hosted Return to the Titanic Live, a two-hour television special broadcast from Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie in Paris, which was widely criticized as being insensitive and for making light of the tragic sinking soon after its wreck was discovered.

[59][60] Savalas was close friends with actor John Aniston,[18] and was godfather to his daughter Jennifer, a successful TV and film actress.

His other hobbies and interests included golfing, swimming, reading romantic books, watching football, traveling, collecting luxury cars and gambling.

Naming the horse Telly's Pop, it won several races in 1975, including the Norfolk Stakes and Del Mar Futurity.

[64] This deformed digit was often indicated on screen; the Kojak episode "Conspiracy of Fear" in which a close-up of Savalas holding his chin in his hand clearly shows the permanently bent finger.

[59][60][68] Savalas died on January 22, 1994, of complications of prostate and bladder cancer at the Sheraton-Universal Hotel in Universal City, California, at the age of 72.

[71] Savalas was interred at the George Washington section of Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.