(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.
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
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 | Nico | ||
1960 | Abe Reles | Nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor | |
Tom Weber | |||
1961 | Joy Boy | Nominated again for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor | |
1962 | Young Psychiatrist | ||
1963 | Police Chief | ||
Cab Driver | |||
1964 | Guy Gisborne | ||
Attack and Retreat (Italiani brava gente) | Medic | Italian production | |
1965 | Max | ||
1966 | Lieutenant Horatio Bixbee | ||
Danny | |||
1967 | Milt Manville | ||
1968 | Corporal Jack Rabinoff | Alternative titles: The Battle of Anzio, Lo Sbarco di Anzio (Italian) | |
1969 | Charlie Adamo | Alternative titles: For a Price, Gli intoccabili (Italian) | |
Sergeant Rossi | |||
1970 | Archie Black | Directed by John Cassavetes | |
1974 | Nick Longhetti | Directed by John Cassavetes | |
1976 | Sam Diamond | ||
Mikey | |||
Griffin and Phoenix: A Love Story | Geoffrey Griffin | ||
1977 | Directed by John Cassavetes | ||
1978 | Tony Pino | ||
Lou Peckinpaugh | Alternative title: Neil Simon's The Cheap Detective | ||
Himself – Host | Documentary; directed by Arnold Shapiro | ||
1979 | Vincent J. Ricardo | ||
1981 | Harry Sears | Alternative title: The California Dolls | |
Tramp | (uncredited) | ||
1986 | Steve Rickey | Directed by John Cassavetes | |
1987 | Grandfather/Narrator | ||
Nick | Directed by John G. Avildsen | ||
Himself | Directed by Wim Wenders | ||
1988 | Harry Buscafusco | Alternative title: Vibes: The Secret of the Golden Pyramids | |
1989 | Dominick "Dino" Capisco | ||
1990 | Pedro Carmichael | Alternative title: Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter | |
1993 | Himself | Directed by Wim Wenders | |
1995 | Rocky Holzcek | ||
1998 | Vinnie Glynn | ||
2001 | Max | ||
Francis A. "Pops" Romano | Alternative title: Corky Romano: 'Special' Agent | ||
2002 | Mendy Ripstein | ||
2004 | Don Feinberg | Voice | |
2005 | Sam Kleinman | ||
2005 | Morris Applebaum | ||
2007 | Irv | ||
2008 | Father Randolph | ||
Television | |||
Year | Show | Role | Notes |
1958 | Izzy | 1 episode | |
1959 | Fred Dana | 1 episode | |
1960 | Waller | 1 episode | |
Duke Mullen | 1 episode, "The Underworld Bank" | ||
1961 | Ramos Clemente | 1 episode "The Mirror" | |
Joe | 1 episode, "The Assassin" | ||
1962 | Lopez | 1 episode | |
1963 | Gus Morgan | 1 episode | |
1964 | Dr. Jimmy Reynolds | 2 episodes | |
1965–1966 | Daniel O'Brien | 22 episodes | |
1968 | Polo Pope | 1 episode | |
1968–2003 | Lieutenant Columbo | 69 episodes | |
1971 | Lewis Corbett | 1 episode | |
1978 | Dean Martin Celebrity Roast (comedy) | Guest appearance | with Frank Sinatra — Watch |
1995 | Willie Clark | Television movie | |
2001 | Reverend Theo Kerr | Television movie | |
2001 | Max | Television Movie | |
2003 | Max | Television movie | |
2004 | Max | Television Movie | |
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