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1925—2021 · Sergeant Kramer in six episodes

Bruce Kirby

The policeman the Columbo audience sees at the lieutenant’s side more often than any other. Bruce Kirby played Sergeant George Kramer six times, from 1973 to 1990 — across both networks and the eleven-year gap. In a series whose hero has no regular partner and no first name, that is close to family.

Parts in Columbo

Sergeant Kramer

Kramer appears in Lovely But Lethal, By Dawn’s Early Light, A Deadly State of Mind, Identity Crisis, Last Salute to the Commodore and, after the long break, Agenda for Murder — seventeen years between his first and last appearance.

Besides Kramer, Kirby has two more parts in the series — a TV repairman in Make Me a Perfect Murder and Phil Brindle in Strange Bedfellows. In By Dawn’s Early Light his son, the actor Bruno Kirby, appears in the same film.

Beyond Columbo

Born Bruno Giovanni Quidaciolu. A character actor with half a century of television: Car 54, Where Are You?, Kojak, Barney Miller, and L.A. Law, where he played a district attorney in thirteen episodes. On film: Catch-22, Stand by Me and Crash (2005). He also worked on Broadway, including Death of a Salesman.

Facts

• Sergeant George Kramer six times, 1973 to 1990: the most frequent police character in the series.
• Played Kramer both before the break, on NBC, and after it, on ABC.
• His son Bruno Kirby appears with him in By Dawn’s Early Light.
• Lived to 95 and kept working into the 2000s.

Questions

More familiar faces

Cast data from TMDB. Biographical details from open reference sources.