Telly Savalas same year. While Savalas was going broke, he founded the Garden City Theater Center in his native Garden City. While working there he met Marilyn Gardner, a theater teacher. They married in 1960. Marilyn gave birth to daughter Penelope in 1961. A second daughter, Candace, was born in 1963. They divorced in 1974, after a long separation. In January 1969, while working on the movie "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," Savalas met actress Sally Adams (billed as Dani Sheridan, one of Blofeld's "Angels of Death"), a small-time actress 25 years his junior whose daughter from a previous relationship is Nicollette
Telly Savalas (1977) for Lew Grade. He wrote, directed, and appeared in a thriller "Beyond Reason (1977 film)" (1977, not released until 1985). In 1978, after five seasons and 118 episodes, CBS canceled the show because of low ratings. Savalas was unhappy about the show's demise, but he got the chance to reprise the Kojak persona in several television films. After the series' cancellation, Savalas did "Escape to Athena" (1978) and a cameo in "The Muppet Movie" (1979) for Grade. He had a support part in "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" (1979) and "The French Atlantic Affair" (1980) and the lead in "Border