Peter Falk

Peter Michael Falk, born in Manhattan on September 16, 1927, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television over more than five decades. He died on June 23, 2011. His parents, Michael Peter Falk and Madeline Hochhauser Falk, were both Jewish, and his father operated a clothing and dry goods store. At age three, Falk underwent surgery to remove his right eye due to a retinoblastoma, and he wore an artificial eye for the remainder of his life. The condition produced his trademark squint. Despite the loss of the eye, he was an active athlete in his youth, participating in baseball and basketball, and served as president of his senior class at Ossining High School in Westchester County, New York, graduating in 1945.

Falk's formal education followed an unconventional path. He briefly attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, then served in the United States Merchant Marine as a cook and mess boy after being rejected by the armed services because of his missing eye. Following roughly a year and a half at sea, he returned to Hamilton College and also studied at the University of Wisconsin before transferring 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 subsequently earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the Maxwell School of Syracuse University in 1953. He also spent time in postwar Europe, including six months working on railway reconstruction in Yugoslavia.

Rather than pursuing the civil service career his graduate program was designed to produce, Falk took a position as a management analyst with the Connecticut State Budget Bureau in Hartford. While working there, he joined a community theater group called the Mark Twain Masquers, performing in productions that included The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Crucible, and Clifford Odets's The Country Girl. He also studied acting with Eva Le Gallienne at the White Barn Theatre in Westport, Connecticut, driving from Hartford each Wednesday to attend her classes. Le Gallienne's encouragement led him to leave his government job and move to Greenwich Village in 1956 to pursue acting professionally. Before departing Hartford, he obtained a letter of recommendation from Le Gallienne to an agent at the William Morris Agency.

Falk's first New York stage appearance was in an off-Broadway production of Molière's Don Juan at the Fourth Street Theatre, in which he played Sganarelle; the production closed after a single performance on January 3, 1956. His career gained more traction later that spring when he appeared as Rocky Pioggi in a Circle in the Square revival of The Iceman Cometh, directed by Jose Quintero and starring Jason Robards. His Broadway career began later in 1956 with two productions: Alexander Ostrovsky's Diary of a Scoundrel and, as the year closed, Shaw's Saint Joan, in which he played an English soldier opposite Siobhán McKenna. He continued working in theater through the following years, including a summer stock production of Arnold Schulman's A Hole in the Head at the Colonie Summer Theatre near Albany in July 1962. His Broadway work also included The Passion of Josef D., The Prisoner of Second Avenue, which he joined in 1972, and Glengarry Glen Ross. His Broadway appearances extended from 1956 through 1985.

Falk's screen career developed in parallel with his stage work. He received two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor, for Murder, Inc. in 1960 and Pocketful of Miracles in 1961, and became the first actor to receive nominations for both the Academy Award and the Emmy Award in the same year, a distinction he achieved twice, in 1961 and 1962. His first Emmy Award came in 1962 for The Dick Powell Theatre. His film credits included It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in 1963, Robin and the 7 Hoods alongside Frank Sinatra in 1964, The Great Race in 1965, Anzio in 1968, Murder by Death in 1976, The Cheap Detective and The Brink's Job in 1978, The In-Laws in 1979, The Princess Bride and Wings of Desire in 1987, The Player in 1992, and Next in 2007. He also collaborated repeatedly with filmmaker John Cassavetes, a personal friend, appearing in Husbands in 1970, A Woman Under the Influence in 1974, Elaine May's Mikey and Nicky in 1976, Big Trouble in 1986, and in a cameo in Cassavetes's 1977 film Opening Night.

Falk is most widely recognized for portraying Lieutenant Columbo in the NBC and ABC television series Columbo, a role he first played in a 1968 television pilot opposite Gene Barry and again in a 1971 pilot with Lee Grant. The series ran as part of The NBC Mystery Movie from 1971 to 1978 and returned on ABC from 1989 to 2003. The role earned him four Primetime Emmy Awards, in 1972, 1975, 1976, and 1990, as well as a Golden Globe Award in 1973. In 1996, TV Guide placed him at number 21 on its list of the 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time. He received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013.