/ Stars that died in 2023

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Gene Colan, American comic book artist (Daredevil, Howard the Duck), died from complications from cancer and liver disease he was , 84.

Eugene Jules Colan was an American comic book artist best known for his work for Marvel Comics, where his signature titles include the superhero series, Daredevil, the cult-hit satiric series Howard the Duck, and The Tomb of Dracula, considered one of comics' classic horror series died from complications from cancer and liver disease he was , 84. He co-created the Falcon, the first African-American superhero in mainstream comics, and the non-costumed, supernatural African-American character Blade, which went on to star in a series of films starring Wesley Snipes.

(September 1, 1926 – June 23, 2011)


Colan was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2005.

Biography

Early life and career

Born in The Bronx, New York City, New York,[3] the son of parents who ran an antiques business on the Upper East Side,[1] Gene Colan began drawing at age three. "The first thing I ever drew was a lion. I must've absolutely copied it or something. But that's what my folks tell me. And from then on, I just drew everything in sight. My grandfather was my favorite subject".[3] He attended George Washington High School in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, and went on to study at the Art Students League of New York. His major art influences are Syd Shores, Coulton Waugh,[3] and Milton Caniff.[3]
He began working in comics in 1944, doing illustrations for publisher Fiction House's aviation-adventure series Wings Comics. "[J]ust a summertime job before I went into the service",[4] it gave Colan his first published work, the one-page "Wing Tips" non-fiction filler "P-51B Mustang" (issue #52, Dec. 1944).[5] His first comics story was a seven-page "Clipper Kirk" feature in the following month's issue.[6]
After attempting to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II but being pulled out by his father "because I was underage", Colan at "18 or 19" enlisted in the Army Air Corps.[3] Originally scheduled for gunnery school in Boulder, Colorado, plans changed with the war's sudden end. After training at an Army camp near Biloxi, Mississippi, he joined the occupation forces in the Philippines.[3] There Colan rose to the rank of corporal, drew for the Manila Times, and won an art contest.[3]
Upon his return to civilian life in 1946, Colan went to work for Marvel Comics' 1940s precursor, Timely Comics. He recalled in 2000,
"I was living with my parents. I worked very hard on a war story, about seven or eight pages long, and I did all the lettering myself, I inked it myself, I even had a wash effect over it. I did everything I could do, and I brought it over to Timely. What you had to do in those days was go to the candy store, pick up a comic book, and look in the back to see where it was published. Most of them were published in Manhattan, they would tell you the address, and you'd simply go down and make an appointment to go down and see the art director".[3] Al Sulman, listed in Timely mastheads then as an "editorial associate",[7] "gave me my break. I went up there, and he came out and met me in the waiting room, looked at my work, and said, 'Sit here for a minute'. And he brought the work in, and disappeared for about 10 minutes or so... then came back out and said, 'Come with me'. That's how I met [editor-in-chief] Stan [Lee].[8] Just like that, and I had a job".[3]
Comics historian Michael J. Vassallo identifies that first story as "Adam and Eve — Crime Incorporated" in Lawbreakers Always Lose #1 (cover date Spring 1948), on which is written the an internal job number 2401. He notes another story, "The Cop They Couldn't Stop" in All-True Crime #27 (April 1948), job number 2505, may have been published first, citing the differing cover-date nomenclature ("Spring" v. "April") for the uncertainty.[9]
Hired as "a staff penciler", Colan "started out at about $60 a week. ... Syd Shores was the art director".[10] Due to Colan's work going uncredited, in the manner of the times, comprehensive credits for this era are difficult if not impossible to ascertain. In 2010, he recalled his first cover art being for an issue of Captain America Comics;[11] Colan drew the 12-page lead story in issue #72, the cover-artist of which is undetermined.[12] He definitively drew the cover of the final issue, the horror comic Captain America's Weird Tales #75 (Feb. 1950), which did not include the titular superhero on either the cover or inside.[13]
After virtually all the Timely staff was let go in 1948 during an industry downturn, Colan began freelancing for National Comics, the future DC Comics. A stickler for accuracy, he meticulously researched his countless war stories for DC's All-American Men at War, Captain Storm, and Our Army at War, as well as for Marvel's 1950s forerunner Atlas Comics, on the series Battle, Battle Action, Battle Ground, Battlefront, G.I. Tales, Marines in Battle, Navy Combat and Navy Tales. Colan's earliest confirmed credit during this time is penciling and inking the six-page crime fiction story "Dream Of Doom", by an uncredited writer, in Atlas' Lawbreakers Always Lose #6 (Feb. 1949).[14]
He would rent 16 mm movies of Hopalong Cassidy Westerns in order to trace likenesses for the DC licensed series, which he drew from 1954 to 1957.

Silver Age

While freelancing for DC romance comics in the 1960s, Colan did his first superhero work for Marvel under the pseudonym Adam Austin.[15] Taking to the form immediately, he introduced the "Sub-Mariner" feature in Tales to Astonish, and succeeded Don Heck on "Iron Man" in Tales of Suspense.
Shortly afterward, under his own name, Colan became one of the premier Silver Age Marvel artists, illustrating a host of such major characters as Captain America, Doctor Strange (both in the late-1960s and the mid-1970s series), and his signature character, Daredevil. Operating, like other company artists, on the "Marvel Method" — in which editor-in-chief and primary writer Stan Lee "would just speak to me for a few minutes on the phone, tell me the beginning, the middle and the end [of a story] and not much else, maybe four or five paragraphs, and then he’d tell me to make [a 20-page] story out of it,"[4] providing artwork to which Lee would then script dialogue and captions — Colan forged his own style, unlike that of artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, whom Lee would point to as exemplars of the Marvel style:
[W]hatever book he thought was selling, he would have the rest of the staff try to copy the same style of work, but I wouldn't do it. I'd tell him if you want Stevie Ditko then you'll have to get Stevie Ditko. I can't do it, I have to be myself. So he left me alone. ... He knew I meant it and that I couldn't do it and there was no point in trying to force me to do it. Stan recognized something in my work from the very start, whatever that was, that gave my first big break. And I always got along very well with Stan; not everybody can say that but I did ... so he let me do pretty much what I wanted to do.... [T]here was always some little change here and there, but basically he left me alone. ... And I was intimidated by Stan. I didn't want to go into his office, it upset me a little bit, but he was very nice to me. He left me pretty much alone because I was able to deliver pretty much what he was looking for, so we never had any trouble.[4]
Colan's long run on the series Daredevil encompassed all but three issues in an otherwise unbroken, 81-issue string from #20-100 (Sept. 1966 - June 1973), plus the initial Daredevil Annual (1967). He returned to draw ten issues sprinkled from 1974–79, and an eight-issue run in 1997. Colan admitted relying upon amphetamines in order to make deadlines for illustrating the series Doctor Strange.[16]
In Captain America #117 (Sept. 1969), Colan and writer-editor Stan Lee created the Falcon,[17] the first African-American superhero in mainstream comic books. The character came about, Colan recalled in 2008,
...in the late 1960s [when news of the] Vietnam War and civil rights protests were regular occurrences, and Stan, always wanting to be at the forefront of things, started bringing these headlines into the comics. ... One of the biggest steps we took in this direction came in Captain America. I enjoyed drawing people of every kind. I drew as many different types of people as I could into the scenes I illustrated, and I loved drawing black people. I always found their features interesting and so much of their strength, spirit and wisdom written on their faces. I approached Stan, as I remember, with the idea of introducing an African-American hero and he took to it right away. ... I looked at several African-American magazines, and used them as the basis of inspiration for bringing The Falcon to life.[18]

Dracula and Batman

Colan also in the 1970s illustrated the complete, 70-issue run of the acclaimed[19] horror title The Tomb of Dracula, as well as most issues of writer Steve Gerber's cult-hit, Howard the Duck.
Colan, already one of Marvel's most well-established and prominent artists, said he had lobbied for the Tomb of Dracula assignment.
When I heard Marvel was putting out a Dracula book, I confronted [editor] Stan [Lee] about it and asked him to let me do it. He didn't give me too much trouble but, as it turned out, he took that promise away, saying he had promised it to Bill Everett. Well, right then and there I auditioned for it. Stan didn't know what I was up to, but I spent a day at home and worked up a sample, using Jack Palance as my inspiration and sent it to Stan. I got a call that very day: 'It's yours.'"[20]
Back at DC in the 1980s, following a professional falling out with Marvel,[21] Colan brought his shadowy, moody textures to Batman, serving as the Dark Knight's primary artist from 1982–1986, penciling most issues of Detective Comics and Batman during that time. He was also the artist of Wonder Woman from early 1982 to mid-1983. Helping to create new characters as well, Colan collaborated in the 1980s with The Tomb of Dracula writer Marv Wolfman on the 14-issue run of Night Force; with Cary Bates on the 12-issue run of Silverblade; and with Greg Potter on the 12-issue run of Jemm, Son of Saturn. As well, he drew the first six issues of Doug Moench's 1987 revival of The Spectre.

Colan's style, characterized by fluid figure drawing and extensive use of shadow, was unusual among Silver Age comic artists,[22] and became more pronounced as his career progressed. He usually worked as a penciller, with Klaus Janson and Tom Palmer as his most frequent inkers. Colan broke from the mass-market comic book penciller/inker/colorist assembly-line system by creating finished drawings in graphite and watercolor on such projects as the DC Comics miniseries Nathaniel Dusk (1984) and Nathaniel Dusk II (1985–86), and the feature "Ragamuffins" in the Eclipse Comics umbrella series Eclipse #3, 5, & 8 (1981–83). All these were written by frequent collaborator Don McGregor.
Independent-comics work includes the Eclipse graphic novel Detectives Inc.: A Terror Of Dying Dreams (1985), written by McGregor and reprinted in sepia tone as an Eclipse miniseries in 1987, and the miniseries Predator: Hell & Hot Water for Dark Horse Comics. He contributed to Archie Comics in the late 1980s and early 1990s, drawing and occasionally writing a number of stories. His work there included penciling the lighthearted science-fiction series Jughead's Time Police #1-6 (July 1990 - May 1991), and the 1990 one-shot To Riverdale and Back Again, an adaptation of the NBC TV movie about the Archie characters 20 years later, airing May 6, 1990; Stan Goldberg and Mike Esposito drew the parts featuring the characters in flashback as teens, while Colan drew adult characters, in a less cartoony style.
Back at Marvel, he collaborated again with Marv Wolfman on a new The Tomb of Dracula series, and with Don McGregor on a Black Panther serial in the Marvel Comics Presents anthology.

Later life and career

Colan did some of the insert artwork on Hellbilly Deluxe (released August 1998), the first solo album of Rob Zombie, credited as Gene "The Mean Machine" Colan.[23]
In the 2000s, Colan returned to vampires by drawing a pair of stories for Dark Horse Comics' Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.
At various points, Colan taught at Manhattan's School of Visual Arts and Fashion Institute of Technology, and had showings at the Bess Cutler Gallery in New York City and at the Elm Street Arts Gallery in Manchester, Vermont.[citation needed]
He penciled the final pages of Blade vol. 3, #12 (Oct. 2007), the final issue of that series, drawing a flashback scene in which the character dresses in his original outfit from the 1970s series The Tomb of Dracula. That same month, for the anniversary issue Daredevil vol. 2, #100 (Oct. 2007), Colan penciled pages 18–20 of the 36-page story "Without Fear, Part One"; the issue additionally reprinted the Colan-drawn Daredevil #90-91 (Aug.-Sept. 1972).
On May 11, 2008, Colan's family announced that Colan, who had been hospitalized for liver failure, had suffered a sharp deterioration in his health.[24] By December, he had sufficiently recovered to travel to an in-store signing in California.[25] He continued to produce original comics work as late as 2009, drawing the lead feature in Captain America #601 (Sept. 2009). Subsequently, he won an Eisner Award for Best Single Issue (together with writer Ed Brubaker) for his work on that issue.[26]
Colan died on June 23, 2011, following complications from liver disease and a broken hip received in a fall.[2][27]

Personal life

Colan was married twice: first to Sallee Greenberg, with whom he had children Valerie and Jill before the couple divorced, and Adrienne Brickman, with whom he had children Erik and Nanci.[1][28] Colan and his second wife moved from New York City to Vermont late in life before returning to New York. Adrienne Colan died June 21, 2010.[29]

Bibliography

Interior pencil art includes:

DC Comics

Marvel Comics

Awards and honors

Colan won for the Shazam Award for Best Penciller (Dramatic Division) in 1974. He received the 1977 and 1979 Eagle Award for Favorite Comic Book (Humor), for Howard the Duck, and was nominated for five Eagle Awards in 1978.
In 2005, Colan was inducted into the comics industry's Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.[30]
The Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco, California, presented the retrospective "Colan: Visions of a Man without Fear" from November 15, 2008, to March 15, 2009.[31]
Colan was the recipient of the 2008 Sparky Award, presented December 4, 2008.[citation needed]
He won the Comic Art Professional Society's Sergio Award on October 24, 2009.[32]

Audio

 

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Gaye Delorme, Canadian musician, died from a heart attack he was , 64



Gaye Delorme was a Canadian songwriter, composer and virtuoso guitar player. Born in Thunder Bay, Ontario, he lived primarily in western Canada until his death of a possible heart attack. Gaye was to perform at the Calgary Bluesfest Warmup with his Vancouver band featuring Sneaky Pete on June 25, but passed away in the early hours of the morning On June 24 at a friends home died from a heart attack he was , 64. Delorme was able to play many styles of guitar music including flamenco, classical, jazz (in the styles of Django Reinhardt and Wes Montgomery), country, blues, rock and heavy metal. His wide-ranging skill as a guitarist included the ability to emulate other instruments such as the sitar and the koto. Stevie Ray Vaughan described Delorme as "one of the best".[1] He was entirely self-taught, having picked up the guitar at age fifteen during a stint in juvenile detention. He learned how to read music in the 1990s after performing as a professional musician for over thirty years.

(March 20, 1947 - June 24, 2011)

In the early 70's he lead a Jimi Hendrix-styled power trio called The Window in Edmonton, Alberta. During this period, he could also be heard in jazz jams around town, or at the Hovel folk club. He moved from Edmonton to Calgary and played in country bands there for a few years, until forming another trio to play his original rock and blues oriented tunes to play the dance club scene in Alberta. After a brief move to Vancouver, he returned to Edmonton in the 90's and was a mainstay at the Sidetrack Cafe, where he developed a latin fusion style that at one point featured Gaye leading a 10 piece band with a horn section. From roughly 2000 to 2009, Gaye lived in Vancouver, and focused on his writing, recordings and concerts, often appearing solo. In 2009, Gaye moved back to Edmonton.

Collaborations

Delorme played with many musicians and groups including Jann Arden, the Powder Blues Band, Lenny Breau, David Foster, Airto Moreira, Billy Cobham and Stanley Clarke. In 2006 he was accompanied by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra for his performance of Joaquín Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez. 1986 saw Delorme record a one-hour special for CBC television entitled "Gaye Delorme in Concert". As well as composing and playing guitar, he produced k.d. lang's first album A Truly Western Experience.

The LA Years

During the 1970s and 1980s, Delorme lived in Los Angeles, collaborating frequently with Cheech and Chong, most notably writing the music for Cheech and Chong's anthem Earache My Eye. The immediately-recognizable guitar riff became part of the modern musical lexicon, with numerous covers of Earache My Eye recorded by heavy metal, punk and even hip-hop artists. His long-running association with Cheech and Chong included musical contributions to Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (1980), and culminated with Delorme scoring their film Things Are Tough All Over (1982). The drug and alcohol fueled atmosphere of LA was taking a heavy toll on Delorme by the mid eighties, so he moved back to his native Canada.

Comedy

Delorme was often involved in Cheech and Chong's improvised writing process, and humor was integral to his audience rapport during live performances. His own comedy caused a buzz in 1980 when The Rodeo Song was released by Garry Lee & Showdown. The single resulted in a CRIA double-platinum record.[2] The song quickly became a cult favorite and was compiled by Dr. Demento on Demento's Mementos, and was used in the Stephen King film Sleepwalkers (1992). Delorme's own version of the Rodeo Song was released on the album Rodeo Songs in 2002.

Discography

American Jumbo - Beautiful Guitar vol. 2 (2008)
Borderline (2002)
Delorme (2002)
Rodeo Songs (2002)
The Best of Gaye Delorme (1999)
Beautiful Guitar (1998)
Blue Wave Sessions (1990)

 

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Monday, August 8, 2011

Peter Falk, American actor (Columbo, Murder, Inc., Pocketful of Miracles, The Princess Bride) died he was , 83.

Peter Michael Falk was an American actor, best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo in the television series Columbo  died he was , 83.. He appeared in numerous films such as The Princess Bride, The Great Race and Next, and television guest roles and was nominated for an Academy Award twice (for 1960's Murder, Inc. and 1961's Pocketful of Miracles), and won the Emmy Award on five occasions (four for Columbo) and the Golden Globe award once. Director William Friedkin, when discussing Falk's role in his 1978 film The Brink's Job said that "Peter has a great range from comedy to drama. He could break your heart or he could make you laugh.".

(September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011)

In 1968, he starred with Gene Barry in a ninety-minute television pilot about a highly-skilled, laid-back detective. Columbo eventually became part of an anthology series titled The NBC Mystery Movie, along with McCloud and McMillan & Wife. The detective series stayed on NBC from 1971 to 1978, took a respite, and returned occasionally on ABC from 1989 to 2003. He was "everyone's favorite rumpled television detective", wrote historian David Fantle.[2] Describing his[Falk's] role, Variety columnist Howard Prouty wrote, "The joy of all this is watching Columbo dissemble [sic] the fiendishly clever cover stories of the loathsome rats who consider themselves his better."[3]

Early life

Born in New York City, Falk was the son of Michael Peter Falk, owner of a clothing and dry goods store, and his wife, Madeline (née Hochhauser),[4] an accountant and buyer.[5] His family was Jewish,[6] his father of Russian ancestry[7] and his mother of Polish descent with Hungarian and Czech roots.[8][9]
Falk's right eye was surgically removed when he was three because of a retinoblastoma; he wore a glass eye for most of his life.[10] Despite this, Falk participated in team sports, mainly baseball and basketball, as a boy. In a 1997 interview in Cigar Aficionado magazine with Arthur Marx, Falk said, "I remember once in high school the umpire called me out at third base when I was sure I was safe. I got so mad I took out my glass eye, handed it to him and said, 'Try this.' I got such a laugh you wouldn't believe."[11]
Falk's first stage appearance was at the age of 12 in The Pirates of Penzance at Camp High Point[12] in upstate New York, where one of his camp counselors was Ross Martin (they would later act together in The Great Race and the Columbo episode "Suitable For Framing"). Falk attended Ossining High School in Westchester County, New York, where he was a star athlete and president of his senior class. After graduating from high school in 1945, Falk briefly attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and then tried to join the armed services as World War II was drawing to a close. Rejected because of his glass eye, he joined the United States Merchant Marine, and served as a cook and mess boy. "There they don't care if you're blind or not", Falk said in 1997. "The only one on a ship who has to see is the captain. And in the case of the Titanic, he couldn't see very well, either."[11] Falk recalls this period in his autobiography:
After a year and a half in the Merchant Marine, Falk returned to Hamilton College and also attended the University of Wisconsin. He transferred to the New School for Social Research in New York City, which awarded him a bachelor's degree in literature and political science in 1951. He then traveled in Europe and worked on a railroad in Yugoslavia for six months.[14] He returned to New York, enrolling at Syracuse University,[11] but he recalled in his 2006 memoir, Just One More Thing, that he was unsure what he wanted to do with his life for years after leaving high school.[15]
Falk obtained a Master of Public Administration degree at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University in 1953. The program was designed to train civil servants for the federal government, a career that Falk said in his memoir that he had "no interest in and no aptitude for."[16] He applied for a job with the CIA, but was rejected because of his membership in the Marine Cooks and Stewards Union while serving in the Merchant Marine, even though he was required to join and was not active in the union.[17] He then became a management analyst with the Connecticut State Budget Bureau in Hartford.[18] Falk characterized his Hartford job as "efficiency expert". "I was such an efficiency expert that the first morning on the job, I couldn't find the building where I was to report for work", he said in 1997. "Naturally, I was late, which I always was in those days, but ironically it was my tendency never to be on time that got me started as a professional actor."[11]

Career

Stage career

While working in Hartford, Falk joined a community theater group called the Mark Twain Masquers, where he performed in plays that included The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Crucible, and The Country Girl by Clifford Odets. Falk also studied with Eva Le Gallienne, who was giving an acting class at the White Barn Theatre in Westport, Connecticut. Falk later recalled that he had "lied his way" into the class, which was for professional actors. He drove down to Westport from Hartford every Wednesday, when the classes were held, and was usually late.[11]
In his 1997 interview with Arthur Marx in Cigar Aficionado magazine, Falk said "One evening when I arrived late, she looked at me and asked, 'Young man, why are you always late?' and I said, 'I have to drive down from Hartford.'" She looked down her nose and said, "What do you do in Hartford? There's no theater there. How do you make a living acting?" Falk confessed he wasn't a professional actor. According to Falk, she looked at him sternly and said, "Well, you should be." He drove back to Hartford and quit his job.[11]
Falk stayed with the Le Gallienne group for a few months more, and obtained a letter of recommendation from Le Galliene to an agent at the William Morris Agency in New York.[11] In 1956, he left his job with the Budget Bureau and moved to Greenwich Village to pursue an acting career.
His first New York stage role was in an Off-Broadway production of Molière's Dom Juan at the Fourth Street Theatre that closed after its only performance on January 3, 1956. Falk played the second lead, Sganarelle.[19] His next theater role proved far better for his career. In May, he appeared at Circle in the Square in a revival of The Iceman Cometh with Jason Robards playing the bartender.[18][20]
Falk made his Broadway debut also in 1956, appearing in Alexander Ostrovsky's Diary of a Scoundrel. As the year came to an end, he appeared again on Broadway as an English soldier in Shaw's Saint Joan, with Siobhán McKenna.[21] In 1972, he appeared in Broadway's The Prisoner of Second Avenue. According to film historian Ephraim Katz, "His characters derive added authenticity from his squinty gaze, the result of the loss of an eye ..."[22]

Early films



Falk was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance as the gangster Abe Reles in Murder, Inc. (1960)
Despite his stage success, a theatrical agent advised Falk not to expect much film acting work because of his glass eye.[18] He 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." He also failed to get a role in the film Marjorie Morningstar, despite a promising interview for the second lead.[23] His first film performances were in small roles in Wind Across the Everglades (1958), The Bloody Brood (1959) and Pretty Boy Floyd (1960).[24]
Falk's performance in Murder, Inc. (1960) was a turning point in his career. He was cast in the supporting role of killer Abe Reles, in a film based on the real-life murder gang of that name, that had terrorized New York in the 1930s. The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther, while dismissing the movie as "an average gangster film", singled out Falk's "amusingly vicious performance."[25]
Crowther wrote:[25]
Mr. Falk, moving as if weary, looking at people out of the corners of his eyes and talking as if he had borrowed Marlon Brando's chewing gum, seems a travesty of a killer, until the water suddenly freezes in his eyes and he whips an icepick from his pocket and starts punching holes in someone's ribs. Then viciousness pours out of him and you get a sense of a felon who is hopelessly cracked and corrupt.

The film turned out to be Falk's breakout role. In his autobiography, Just One More Thing (2006), Falk said that his selection for the film from thousands of other Off-Broadway actors was a "miracle" that "made my career" and that without it, he would not have gotten the other significant movie roles that he later played.[26] Falk, who played Reles again in the 1960 TV series The Witness,[24] was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance in the film.
In 1961, multiple Academy Award-winning director Frank Capra cast Falk in the comedy Pocketful of Miracles. The film was Capra's last feature, and although it was not the commercial success he hoped it would be, he "gushed about Falk's performance."[2] Falk was nominated for an Oscar for his role. In his autobiography Capra writes about Falk:
The entire production was agony ... except for Peter Falk. He was my joy, my anchor to reality. Introducing that remarkable talent to the techniques of comedy made me forget pains, tired blood, and maniacal hankerings to murder Glenn Ford (the film's star). Thank you Peter Falk."[27]:480
For his part, Falk says that he "never worked with a director who showed greater enjoyment of actors and the acting craft." Falk says, "There is nothing more important to an actor than to know that the one person who represents the audience to you, the director, is responding well to what you are trying to do." Falk recalled one time that Capra reshot a scene even though he yelled "Cut and Print", indicating the scene was finalized. When Falk asked him why he wanted it reshot, "he laughed and said that he loved the scene so much he just wanted to see us do it again. How's that for support!"[2]
For the remainder of the 1960s, Falk had mainly small movie roles and TV guest-starring appearances. He had a role in the epic 1963 comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, a star-studded adventure that saw him playing a cop-hating cab driver who gets caught up in the hilarity. Even though he shows up in the last fifth of the movie, Falk turns in a gem of a performance as one of two cabbies who falls victim to greed. Other roles included a comical crook in the 1964 Rat Pack film, Robin and the 7 Hoods, and the 1965 spoof The Great Race, with Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.

Early television roles

Falk first appeared on television in 1957, in the dramatic anthology programs that later became known as the "Golden Age of Television." He appeared in one episode of Robert Montgomery Presents in 1957, and also appeared in Studio One, Kraft Television Theater, New York Confidential, Naked City, Have Gun–Will Travel and Decoy.[24] On The Twilight Zone he portrayed a Castro-type revolutionary complete with beard who was drunk with power and kept seeing his assassins in a newly acquired mirror.
In 1961, Falk was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in the episode "Cold Turkey" of James Whitmore's short-lived series The Law and Mr. Jones on ABC. On September 29, 1961, Falk and Walter Matthau guest-starred in the premiere episode, "The Million Dollar Dump," of ABC's crime drama Target: The Corruptors!, with Stephen McNally. He won an Emmy for The Price of Tomatoes, a Dick Powell TV drama in 1962.[24]
Falk's first television series was in the title role of the drama The Trials of O'Brien, in which he played a lawyer. The show ran in 1965 and 1966 and was cancelled after 22 episodes.[24]
In 1971, Pierre Cossette produced the first Grammy Awards show on television with some help from Falk. Cossette writes in his autobiography, "What meant the most to me, though, is the fact that Peter Falk saved my ass. I love show business, and I love Peter Falk."[28]

Columbo



Although Falk appeared in numerous other television roles in the 1960s and 1970s, he is best known as the star of the TV series Columbo, "everyone's favorite rumpled television detective", writes historian David Fantle. His character was a shabby and ostensibly absent-minded police detective lieutenant, who had first appeared in the 1968 film Prescription: Murder. Falk described his role to Fantle:
Columbo has a genuine mistiness about him. It seems to hang in the air ... [and] he's capable of being distracted ... Columbo is an ass-backwards Sherlock Holmes. Holmes had a long neck, Columbo has no neck; Holmes smoked a pipe, Columbo chews up six cigars a day."[2]
Television critic Ben Falk adds that Falk "created an iconic cop ... who always got his man (or woman) after a tortuous cat-and-mouse investigation." He notes also that the idea for the character was "apparently inspired by Dostoyevsky's dogged police inspector, Porfiry Petrovich, in the novel Crime and Punishment.[29]
Falk tries to analyze the character and notes the correlation between his own personality and Columbo's:
I'm a Virgo Jew, and that means I have an obsessive thoroughness. It's not enough to get most of the details, it's necessary to get them all. I've been accused of perfectionism. When Lew Wasserman (head of Universal Studios) said that Falk is a perfectionist, I don't know whether it was out of affection or because he felt I was a monumental pain in the ass."[2]
With "general amazement", Falk notes that "the show is all over the world". He added, "I've been to little villages in Africa with maybe one TV set, and little kids will run up to me shouting, 'Columbo, Columbo!'"[2] Singer Johnny Cash recalled acting in one episode, and although he was not an experienced actor, he writes in his autobiography, "Peter Falk was good to me. I wasn't at all confident about handling a dramatic role, and every day he helped me in all kinds of little ways."[30]
The debut episode in 1971 was directed by 25-year-old Steven Spielberg in one of his earliest directing roles. Falk recalled the episode to Spielberg biographer Joseph McBride:
Let's face it, we had some good fortune at the beginning. Our debut episode, in 1971, was directed by this young kid named Steven Spielberg. I told the producers, Link and Levinson: "This guy is too good for Columbo" ... Steven was shooting me with a long lens from across the street. That wasn't common twenty years ago. The comfort level it gave me as an actor, besides its great look artistically — well, it told you that this wasn't any ordinary director."[31]
The character of Columbo had previously been played by Bert Freed in a single TV episode and by Thomas Mitchell on Broadway. Falk first played Columbo in Prescription: Murder, a 1968 TV-movie, and from 1971 to 1978 Columbo aired regularly on NBC as part of the umbrella series NBC Mystery Movie. All episodes were of TV-movie length, in a 90 or 120 minutes slot including commercials. The show returned on ABC in the form of a less frequent series of TV-movies, still starring Falk, from 1989 until 2003.[24] Falk won four Emmys for his role in Columbo.[32]
The series was so popular that co-creator William Link wrote a series of short stories published as The Columbo Collection (Crippen & Landru, 2010) which includes a drawing by Falk of himself as Columbo, and the cover features a caricature of Falk/Columbo by Al Hirschfeld.

Later career

Falk was a close friend of independent film director John Cassavetes and appeared in Cassavetes' films Husbands, A Woman Under the Influence, and, in a cameo, at the end of Opening Night. Cassavetes, in turn, guest-starred in the Columbo episode "Étude in Black" in 1972. Falk describes his experiences working with Cassavetes, and specifically remembers his directing strategies such as "shooting an actor when he might be unaware the camera was running."
You never knew when the camera might be going. And it was never: 'Stop. Cut. Start again.' John would walk in the middle of a scene and talk, and though you didn't realize it, the camera kept going. So I never knew what the hell he was doing. [Laughs] But he ultimately made me, and I think every actor, less self-conscious, less aware of the camera than anybody I've ever worked with."[33]
In 1978, he appeared on the comedy TV show Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, where Frank Sinatra was the evening's victim.
Falk continued to work in films, including his performance as a questionable ex-CIA agent of dubious sanity in the comedy The In-Laws. Director Arthur Hiller said during an interview that the "film started out because Alan Arkin and Peter Falk wanted to work together. They went to Warner's and said, 'We'd like to do a picture,' and Warner's said fine ... and out came The In-laws ... of all the films I've done, The In-laws is the one I get the most comments on."[1]:290 Movie critic Roger Ebert compared the film with a later remake:
Peter Falk and Alan Arkin in the earlier film, versus Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks this time ... yet the chemistry is better in the earlier film. Falk goes into his deadpan lecturer mode, slowly and patiently explaining things that sound like utter nonsense. Arkin develops good reasons for suspecting he is in the hands of a madman."[34]
He also appeared in The Princess Bride, Murder By Death, The Cheap Detective, Vibes, Made, and (as himself) in Wim Wenders' 1987 film Wings of Desire and its 1993 sequel, Faraway, So Close!. In 1998, Falk returned to the New York stage to star in an Off-Broadway production of Arthur Miller's Mr. Peters' Connections. His previous stage work included shady real estate salesman Shelley "the Machine" Levine in a Boston/Los Angeles production of David Mamet's prizewinning Glengarry Glen Ross.
Falk also starred in such holiday television movies as A Town Without Christmas (2001), Finding John Christmas (2003) and When Angels Come to Town (2004). In 2005, he starred in The Thing About My Folks. Although movie critic Roger Ebert was not impressed with most of the other actors, he writes in his review, " ... we discover once again what a warm and engaging actor Peter Falk is. I can't recommend the movie, but I can be grateful that I saw it, for Falk."[35] In 2007, Falk appeared with Nicolas Cage in the thriller Next.

Personal life

Falk married Alyce Mayo, whom he had met when they were both students at Syracuse University,[36] on April 17, 1960. They adopted two daughters, Catherine (who is a private investigator) and Jackie. They divorced in 1976. On December 7, 1977, Falk married actress Shera Danese,[37] who guest-starred on the Columbo series on numerous occasions.
Falk was an accomplished artist, and in October 2006 he had an exhibition of his artwork at the Butler Institute of American Art.[38] He took classes at the Art Students League of New York for many years.[39][40] Examples of his sketches can be seen on his official website.
Falk was also a chess aficionado and was a spectator at the American Open in Santa Monica, California, in November 1972, and at the U.S. Open in Pasadena, California, in August 1983.[41]
His memoir, Just One More Thing, was published by Carroll & Graf on August 23, 2006 (ISBN 978-0786717958).
Of death, he once said, "It is just the gateway."[42]

Failing health and death

At a two-day conservatorship trial in Los Angeles in June 2009, one of Falk's personal physicians, Dr. Stephen Read, reported Falk rapidly slipped into dementia after a series of dental operations in 2007.[43] Dr. Read said it was unclear whether Falk's condition had worsened as a result of anesthesia or some other reaction to the operations. He went on to add that Falk's condition was so bad he could no longer remember the character of Columbo. Shera Danese Falk was appointed as her husband's conservator.[44]
Falk died at his Beverly Hills home on June 23, 2011, at the age of 83.[45][46] The cause of death was later revealed as cardiorespiratory arrest, with pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease as underlying causes.[47] Falk was survived by his wife and two daughters.[48] His daughters said they would remember his "wisdom and humor".[49]
Falk's death was greeted with tributes from many film celebrities.[50][51] Steven Spielberg said, "I learned more about acting from him at that early stage of my career than I had from anyone else."[52] Stephen Fry tweeted that Columbo was "TV’s greatest ever detective."[53] Rob Reiner said, "He was a completely unique actor," and went on to say that Falk's work with Alan Arkin in The In-Laws was "one of the most brilliant comedy pairings we've seen on screen."[54]
The Los Angeles Police Department also issued a statement of condolence to Falk's family, stating they were "proud" to be associated with Columbo as well as stating that he was "one of the all-time great TV cops." [55]

Filmography

Film
Year
Film
Role
Notes
1959
The Bloody Brood
Nico
1960
Murder Inc.
Abe Reles
Nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
The Secret of the Purple Reef
Tom Weber
1961
Pocketful of Miracles
Joy Boy
Nominated again for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
1962
Pressure Point
Young Psychiatrist
1963
The Balcony
Police Chief
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Cab Driver
1964
Robin and the 7 Hoods
Guy Gisborne
Attack and Retreat (Italiani brava gente)
Medic
Italian production
1965
The Great Race
Max
1966
Penelope
Lieutenant Horatio Bixbee
Too Many Thieves
Danny
1967
Luv
Milt Manville
1968
Anzio
Corporal Jack Rabinoff
Alternative titles: The Battle of Anzio, Lo Sbarco di Anzio (Italian)
1969
Machine Gun McCain
Charlie Adamo
Alternative titles: For a Price, Gli intoccabili (Italian)
Castle Keep
Sergeant Rossi
1970
Husbands
Archie Black
Directed by John Cassavetes
1974
A Woman Under the Influence
Nick Longhetti
Directed by John Cassavetes
1976
Murder by Death
Sam Diamond
Mikey and Nicky
Mikey
Griffin and Phoenix: A Love Story
Geoffrey Griffin
1977
Opening Night
Cameo appearance
Directed by John Cassavetes
1978
The Brink's Job
Tony Pino
The Cheap Detective
Lou Peckinpaugh
Alternative title: Neil Simon's The Cheap Detective
Scared Straight!
Himself – Host
Documentary; directed by Arnold Shapiro
1979
The In-Laws
Vincent J. Ricardo
1981
...All the Marbles
Harry Sears
Alternative title: The California Dolls
The Great Muppet Caper
Tramp
(uncredited)
1986
Big Trouble
Steve Rickey
Directed by John Cassavetes
1987
The Princess Bride
Grandfather/Narrator
Happy New Year
Nick
Directed by John G. Avildsen
Wings of Desire
Himself
Directed by Wim Wenders
1988
Vibes
Harry Buscafusco
Alternative title: Vibes: The Secret of the Golden Pyramids
1989
Cookie
Dominick "Dino" Capisco
1990
Tune in Tomorrow
Pedro Carmichael
Alternative title: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
1993
Faraway, So Close!
Himself
Directed by Wim Wenders
1995
Roommates
Rocky Holzcek
1998
Money Kings
Vinnie Glynn
2001
Made
Max
Corky Romano
Francis A. "Pops" Romano
Alternative title: Corky Romano: 'Special' Agent
2002
Undisputed
Mendy Ripstein
2004
Shark Tale
Don Feinberg
Voice
2005
The Thing About My Folks
Sam Kleinman
2005
Checking Out
Morris Applebaum
2007
Next
Irv
2008
American Cowslip
Father Randolph
Television
Year
Show
Role
Notes
1958
Kraft Suspense Theatre
Izzy
1 episode
1959
Decoy
Fred Dana
1 episode
1960
Have Gun–Will Travel
Waller
1 episode
The Untouchables
Duke Mullen
1 episode, "The Underworld Bank"
1961
The Twilight Zone
Ramos Clemente
1 episode "The Mirror"
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
Joe
1 episode, "The Assassin"
1962
The New Breed
Lopez
1 episode
1963
Wagon Train
Gus Morgan
1 episode
1964
Ben Casey
Dr. Jimmy Reynolds
2 episodes
1965–1966
The Trials of O'Brien
Daniel O'Brien
22 episodes
1968
A Hatful of Rain
Polo Pope
1 episode
1968–2003
Columbo
Lieutenant Columbo
69 episodes
1971
The Name of the Game
Lewis Corbett
1 episode
1978
Dean Martin Celebrity Roast (comedy)
Guest appearance
with Frank Sinatra — Watch
1995
The Sunshine Boys
Willie Clark
Television movie
2001
The Lost World
Reverend Theo Kerr
Television movie
2001
A Town Without Christmas
Max
Television Movie
2003
Finding John Christmas
Max
Television movie
2004
When Angels Come To Town
Max
Television Movie

 

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