Peter Falk
He played one man for thirty-five years. Before the lieutenant there was a lost eye, the merchant marine, a desk job in state government and two Oscar nominations.
The full, much longer biography is in Russian:read it here.
The eye
Peter Michael Falk was born on 16 September 1927 in New York. At three his right eye was removed: retinoblastoma. He wore a prosthesis for the rest of his life, and the squint that viewers read as an actor’s invention is simply its consequence. It also kept him out of the army — he went into the merchant marine instead, as a cook and a mess boy.
The civil servant who became an actor
His first proper job was in the Connecticut state budget office, as an efficiency expert. He liked telling the story of his first day, when he could not find his own office and turned up at the post office instead of the state capitol. Acting was an evening habit until Eva Le Gallienne told him, in four words, that he ought to do this for a living. He quit the civil service.
Two Oscar nominations before the lieutenant
Falk was a serious film actor before television claimed him: nominated for Murder, Inc. in 1961 and for Frank Capra’s Pocketful of Miracles a year later, and an Emmy winner in 1962. When Prescription: Murder came along in 1968 the producers thought him too young for the part at forty.
Cassavetes
The other half of his career was John Cassavetes, who was both a close friend and the murderer in Étude in Black. Together they made Husbands, A Woman Under the Influence and Mikey and Nicky — improvised, difficult films as far from network television as it is possible to get. Wim Wenders later cast him as himself in Wings of Desire.
What he brought to the part
The raincoat, the shoes and the Peugeot were his, not the costume department’s. So was much of the manner: William Link said the writers had imagined a tidy policeman indifferent to clothes, and that all the scruffiness came from Peter. He also directed one film of the series — Blueprint for Murder and wrote another, It's All in the Game.
Awards
| Year | Award | For |
|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Oscar nomination | Murder, Inc. — supporting role |
| 1962 | Oscar nomination | Pocketful of Miracles, directed by Frank Capra |
| 1962 | Emmy | The Price of Tomatoes — before Columbo |
| 1972 | Emmy | Columbo |
| 1973 | Golden Globe | Columbo |
| 1975 | Emmy | Columbo |
| 1976 | Emmy | Columbo |
| 1990 | Emmy | Columbo |
The last years
Falk was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in his late seventies and by 2008 could no longer remember the part he had played for thirty-five years. He died on 23 June 2011 at his home in Beverly Hills.
In his own words
Falk told the raincoat story himself, and it is simpler than any of the legends: ten years before the series he was walking down 57th Street in New York, saw a short raincoat in a window and went in to buy it. When Columbo came along he took it out of the closet. In 2007, he said, it was still hanging in his bedroom.
“I passed the store and I said: I like that coat. I liked it because it was short. Ten years later I said: I'm going to be this character, I'm going to wear that raincoat.”
Carson said the polls had Columbo beating Archie Bunker among college students and David Cassidy among schoolchildren, and asked why. Falk said he had been asked that about eight hundred times and still had no answer — and then answered it.
“I think they'd like to see the little guy get the big guy. They like him because he's unpretentious, he's polite, he's a decent man, and he likes his job.”
The sharpest public explanation Falk ever gave of the part: all his life he argued with people who took Columbo for a simpleton.
“There's a difference between being dumb, playing being dumb and being distracted. If you play it being a chump, there's no dignity there.”
Whether Mrs Columbo exists at all is the one question the writer and the actor never settled. Link allowed that the wife and all those relatives might be an invention the lieutenant uses on suspects. Falk rejected that flatly: every one of them is real.
“William Link says that maybe all these relatives and the wife, maybe that's a fantasy. Falk said: no, no, no, all those people exist.”
Hargrove explains both the character and where the format came from: a man who looks like a vagrant and works like Sherlock Holmes, inside a structure borrowed from Crime and Punishment, where the killer is known from the first page.
“Here's a guy — he looks like a bum, but he's really Sherlock Holmes. So people constantly underestimate him and he uses that to his advantage.”
Falk picked the car himself and remembered not thinking about it at all until, two days before shooting, he was sent to the studio lot. Out of a hundred cars he was not looking for a suitable one — he was looking for one you would remember.
“I never thought of a car for me. A cop comes in a patrol car, but this is a detective. None of them were distinctive — a million guys could have owned one of those cars.”
Koenig explains why the shoots were hard going: Falk believed he knew the character better than anyone and rewrote his lines on set. Learning the script made no sense to him — he was going to say it his own way regardless.
“He would never memorize it, because he knew he was going to be changing every word anyway. He was going to turn every single line into something new.”
Quotes are given in the speaker’s own words, taken from the transcript of the recording; each player opens at the right minute. They are shortened — the full interviews are behind the videos.
Common questions
How did Peter Falk lose his eye?
To retinoblastoma at the age of three. He wore a glass eye for the rest of his life — the characteristic squint viewers take for acting is a consequence of it.
How long did he play Columbo?
Thirty-five years, from the 1968 pilot to the last film in 2003 — one of the longest runs any actor has had in a single part.
Did he direct any episodes?
Yes, one: Blueprint for Murder (1×07).
What else was he known for?
The films of John Cassavetes — A Woman Under the Influence and Husbands — and Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire, where he plays himself.