Kojak, a crime drama, revolved around Lieutenant Theofilides “Theo” Kojak of the New York City Police Department. The character had a dark sense of humor, which the ominous background of Santore’s painting underscores. Kojak frequently bent the rules to catch criminals, and his approach to interrogating them was notably aggressive.
Actor and singer Aristotelis “Telly” Savalas (1922–1994) was known for his deep, gravelly voice. Critics claimed that his main appeal as Kojak was his distinctive delivery: he could make police jargon sound compelling, and his lines came across as dramatic and expressive, almost poetic. Savalas won an Emmy Award in 1974 and a Golden Globe in both 1975 and 1976.
Born in Philadelphia, Charles Santore graduated from the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (later the University of the Arts) in 1956. He began his career as a freelance illustrator for advertising agencies and magazines including TV Guide, Saturday Evening Post, Time, and Life. From 1986 onward, Santore focused on children’s book illustration, becoming one of the field’s most acclaimed artists. His work has been featured in major exhibitions at the Brandywine River Museum of Art and the Society of Illustrators, and is held in the permanent collections of Woodmere, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Brandywine River Museum of Art, and the Free Library of Philadelphia.
