September 6, 2007. Copyright 2007, Graphic News. All rights reserved

TV cop Columbo turns 80
By Susan Shepherd

LONDON, September 6, Graphic News:  The shabby raincoat and hunched shoulders are known to television audiences around the world. The catchphrase, Òjust one more thing...Ó, has caught many a criminal who thought he'd got away with it. And actor Peter Falk, who will be 80 on September 16, will forever be associated with police lieutenant Columbo, a role he first made his own nearly 40 years ago.

The story of the apparently shambling cop who uses his downbeat appearance to mask his sharp detective skills, started out as a TV movie in 1968, later becoming part of the NBC Mystery Wheel shows. The character of Columbo proved so popular that the series ran for seven years. It ceased production in the late 1970s, but made a comeback in 1988, this time using the two-hour format which continues to this day. For his performances as Columbo alone, Falk has won four Emmy awards and one Golden Globe.

The fictional detective might never have come to pass had New York-born Falk succeeded in an earlier career move. After gaining degrees in political science and public administration, he applied to join the CIA but was turned down and, instead, became a management analyst at the Connecticut State Budget Bureau. Falk was acting in his spare time and, in 1956, at the age of 29, gave up the day job and moved to Greenwich Village, finding regular work in Off-Broadway theatres.

In 1960 he made the move to Hollywood and that year was nominated for an Oscar for his first film, Murder Incorporated. A second nomination followed a year later after he appeared alongside Bette Davis in Frank CapraÕs A Pocketful of Miracles.

His big-screen success was a particular triumph for the actor who had been warned he might be unsuitable for the cinema industry. At the age of three, a malignant tumour was discovered on FalkÕs right eye, which had to be completely removed. As a result, the little boy was given an ocular prosthetic -- or glass eye -- which led to the characteristic gaze his TV crimesolver later used to such effect. FalkÕs film career flourished through his friendship with the ground-breaking director John Cassavetes, who died in 1989 at the age of 59. They made three films together, acting opposite each other in Mikey and Nicky (1976).

A big fan of the playwright Neil Simon, Falk has starred in several Simon plays on Broadway. Directed by Mike Nicholls, he picked up a Tony Award for his performance in The Prisoner of Second Avenue. His more recent film roles include the grandfather in Rob ReinerÕs The Princess Bride (1987) and the voice of Don Feinberg in the DreamWorks movie, Shark Tale (2004).

Last year Falk published a book of autobiographical short stories, appropriately entitled, Just One More Thing. His daughter Catherine, from his first marriage, is a private detective. For the last 30 years, Falk has been married to Shera Danese and, away from his acting career, enjoys sketching and painting, selling his works via his own website. Of his remaining ambitions, Falk is on record as saying:  ÒThe only mountain that I would still like to climb: IÕd like to break 85Ó.
/ENDS