On January 22nd 1994, just one day after his 72nd birthday, actor Telly Savalas died in bed at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Los Angeles, but he is immortalized in the most famous part he played, bald headed Detective Theo Kojak, the world’s best known and best loved cop. Telly rose from a roller coaster childhood which saw him pitched from private school and privilege into living in the harsh realities of New York’s Lower East Side during the Great Depression of the 1930’s. He never intended to be an actor but in his mid-thirties he attended an audition by chance and ended up winning the part which launched his on-screen career. He quickly won plaudits from critics and moviegoers alike as a screen heavy, playing chilling psychopaths who exuded an easy charm, before landing the part of hard-nosed but kind hearted cop Kojak on the small screen. He became an unlikely sex symbol, and embraced the Hollywood lifestyle eagerly, and that may have been his downfall. The death certificate states that he suffered kidney failure as a result of bladder cancer – but while almost half of those diagnosed with Bladder cancer survive for 10 years after diagnosis, Telly was dead within a month…and many still attribute his death to a different cause. What was the truth behind the rumors, and could his celebrated bald head be connected with what really killed him. World renowned forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Hunter needs to analyze every detail of Telly’s life to piece together the facts of what happened to end it.
