Peter Falk of ‘Columbo’ Fame Dies at the Age of 83

There is sad news in the world of TV celebrity, Peter Falk has died at the age of 83. The Emmy award winning actor best known for TV detective show Columbo has passed away at his home in Beverly Hills, CA. Actor-director John Cassavetes referred to him as the man “everybody falls in love with.” Isn’t that the truth. Who did not love the plodding character of Columbo solving crimes in a most unconventional manner? Falk is survived by his wife of 34 years, actress Shera Falk, and two daughters from a previous marriage.

Rest in Peace

Peter Falk, the Emmy-winning stage, screen and TV actor, best known to world audiences as the always-underestimated police detective in the long-running telepic series “Columbo,” died Thursday at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 83.
It was announced that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease in December 2007.

Falk won five Emmys, four for portraying Columbo, and was twice Oscar nommed for supporting roles.

Read more on the life and times of Peter Falk at Variety. Even more at Entertainment Weekly.

Falk did not decide on an acting career until he was almost 30. Born in Manhattan, he was rasied in Ossining, N.Y. After serving in the merchant marine for 18 months as a cook in the days following WWII, he studied at Hamilton College, finished his B.A. in political science at the New School for Social Research in 1951 and his M.A. in public administration at Syracuse U.

After being rejected by the CIA, he worked for the state of Connecticut and began acting in community theater. Encouraged by his acting teacher, he quit his job and moved to New York to study under Jack Landau and Sanford Meisner, making his Off Broadway debut in 1956 in Moliere’s “Don Juan” and hitting Broadway in “St. Joan” when it transferred from Off Broadway in 1957.

Next came the role of the bartender in the hit revival of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Iceman Cometh” and roles in “Diary of a Scoundrel,” “The Lady’s Not for Burning,” “Purple Dust,” “Bonds of Interest” and “Comic Strip.”

What made Peter Falk so loved and admired … he was like no other typical actor. That disheveled look and trench coat … how I miss that show. Who could forget Columbo’s famous line, “Just one more thing …”