Peter Falk, played TV's Columbo, dies at 83 (BLOG)

LOS ANGELES • Peter Falk, the gravel-voiced actor who became an enduring television icon portraying Lt. Columbo, the rumpled raincoat-wearing Los Angeles police homicide detective who always had "just one more thing" to ask a suspect, died Thursday. He was 83.

Falk, who suffered from dementia, died at his home in Beverly Hills, according to a statement from Larry Larson, a friend and an attorney for Falk's wife, Shera.

In a more than 50-year acting career that spanned Broadway, movies and television, Falk appeared in more than 50 feature movies, including "A Woman Under the Influence," "Husbands," "Luv," "Mikey and Nicky," "The In-Laws," "Wings of Desire," "The Great Race," "The Cheap Detective," "Cookie" and "The Princess Bride."

"Husbands" (1970) and "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974), both of which were written and directed by Falk's close friend John Cassavetes, provided Falk with two of his best-known dramatic movie credits.

Early in his movie career, Falk received two Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor — for playing a vicious mob assassin in "Murder, Inc." (1960) and for his portrayal of a gangster's right-hand man in Frank Capra's comedy-drama "Pocketful of Miracles" (1961).
But nothing Falk did came close to matching the acclaim and popularity he found playing the title role in "Columbo," the crime drama for which he won four of his Emmys.

The format of the series, created by Richard Levinson and William Link, inverted the classic detective formula: The TV audience already knew whodunit when Columbo arrived on the scene of the crime. The enjoyment for viewers was in seeing how Columbo doggedly pieced the clues together. As he said in one episode, "I have this bug about tying up loose ends."

Columbo, who was never given a first name, became one of the most memorable TV characters in television history — ranked No. 7 in TV Guide's 1999 list of "TV's Fifty Greatest Characters Ever."

With his tousled dark-brown hair, a cheap cigar wedged between his fingers and his lived-in tan raincoat, the endearingly likable lieutenant was as unprepossessing as the faded old Peugeot he drove. But beyond his rumpled exterior, disarmingly childlike curiosity and seeming disorganization — he'd frequently lose his pencil and have to borrow a pen to jot down notes — there was no question Columbo was the right man for the job.

For the prime suspect, that was never more clear than when Columbo headed to the door, stopped and, in his gravelly voice, said, "Oh, there's just one more thing ..."

Falk had the best take on Columbo. "I love him," he told TV Guide in 2000. "He's eccentric, oblivious to the impression he makes on people. His obsessiveness is hidden by his graciousness. He has a sly sense of humor, is by nature polite and totally devoid of pretension. But God help anyone who commits murder in Los Angeles."


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