R.I.P. Peter Falk

Deadline has the obituary:

The beloved rumpled trenchcoat-wearing police lieutenant on the Columbo TV series died at his Beverly Hills home last night after a long bout with Alzheimer's Disease, according to his daughter, who gave the news to KNX-1070. He was 83. The five-time Emmy winner (four forColumbo) also was a two-time Oscar nominee (for 1960's Murder, Inc and 1961's Pocketful of Miracles). He was a key member of iconoclastic filmmaker John Cassavetes' regular ensemble, starring in such independent film classics as Husbands (1970) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974), and in a cameo at the end of Opening Night. In 1972 he won a Tony for his performance in Broadway's The Prisoner of Second Avenue. But his most famous role was Columbo, which first aired in 1968 as part of an anthology series on NBC from 1971-1978, took a five-year respite, and returned occasionally on ABC from 1983-2003. He once described Columbo as "an ass-backwards Sherlock Holmes" who chewed cigars instead of smoked a pipe. (The debut episode in 1971 was helmed by 25-year-old Steven Spielberg in one of his earliest directing roles.)

Born in New York City, Falk had his right eye surgically removed when he was 3 because of a malignant tumor and wore a glass eye for most of his life. That and his talent made him a natural character actor when he joined a community theater group in Hartford, Conn. Eventually he was signed by the William Morris Agency and began acting full-time in 1956 on the New York stage and that year made his Broadway debut in Diary of a Scoundrel. Lore has it Falk failed a screen test at Columbia Pictures and was told by studio boss Harry Cohn that "for the same price I can get an actor with two eyes." But Murder Inc in 1960 was his breakout movie role, and he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and again in this category in 1961 for Pocketful of Miracles, Frank Capra's last feature. He co-starred in the 1963 comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, in Robin And The 7 Hoods, and in The Great Race his TV career caught fire. Falk occasionally worked in films in his later life (The In-Laws, The Princess Bride, Wings of Desire, Faraway, Roommates, among them).

-Joey's Two Cents: Rest in peace...

Columbo Actor Peter Falk Dead at 83 - Just One More Thing...

I grew up watching Lieutenant Columbo.

I remember getting frustrated at how long it would take him to actually bust the bad guy even though he knew who it was from the very beginning.

With his dirty old raincoat, beat up old car, floppy eared dog, and wife that we never got to meet - Lt. Columbo always knew how to outsmart the crooks.

And here is a little bit of trivia – during the entire Columbo series the viewer was never told what his first name was, and it remains a mystery to this day.

His Shtick was to ask very basic, and sometimes annoying questions, and just as he was walking toward the door to leave he would stop, turn, and say, “Just one more thing…”

And it was always THAT question that got the criminal busted.

But it was entertaining, and little did I know that Peter Falk and Columbo would become an American Icon.



Falk died yesterday at the age of 83 from complications from dementia at his home in Beverly Hills.

Friends say Falk was involved in a bad car accident in 2008 and suffered a bad head injury and was never the same man.

But Falk did much much more than just play Lt. Columbo.

His career started back in 1957 and by the time he retired had been in over 100 movies and TV shows.

Some of the greats included Murder, Inc., The Untouchables, The Twilight Zone, Murder by Death, The Cheap Detective, The Princess Bride, and others.

Peter Falk was one of the greats - and I expect to see his dirty old raincoat in the Smithsonian’s American History Museum next time I’m in Washington D.C.

Hey, don’t laugh – they have the same “Fonzie” lunchbox there that I had when I was in school.

Feel old yet?

Follow InfoStar on Twitter – and just one more thing…