Early career He applied for a job with the
CIA, but he was rejected because of his membership in the
Marine Cooks and Stewards Union while serving in the Merchant Marine, even though he was required to join and was not active in the union (which had been under fire for communist leanings). He then became a management analyst with the Connecticut State Budget Bureau in
Hartford. In 1997, Falk characterized his Hartford job as "efficiency expert": "I was such an efficiency expert that the first morning on the job, I couldn't find the building where I was to report for work. Naturally, I was late, which I always was in those days, but ironically it was my tendency never to be on time that got me started as a professional actor." Falk's first New York stage role was in an
off-Broadway production of
Molière's
Don Juan at the Fourth Street Theatre that closed after its only performance on January 3, 1956. Falk played the second lead, Sganarelle. His next theater role proved far better for his career. In May, he appeared as Rocky Pioggi at
Circle in the Square in a revival of
The Iceman Cometh directed by
Jose Quintero, with
Jason Robards playing the lead role of Theodore "Hickey" Hickman. Later in 1956, Falk made his Broadway debut, appearing in
Alexander Ostrovsky's
Diary of a Scoundrel. As the year came to an end, he appeared again on Broadway as an English soldier in
Shaw's
Saint Joan with
Siobhán McKenna. Falk continued to act in summer stock theater productions, including
Arnold Schulman's
A Hole in the Head at the
Colonie Summer Theatre (near Albany, NY) in July 1962; it starred
Priscilla Morrill. In 1972, Falk appeared in Broadway's
The Prisoner of Second Avenue. According to film historian
Ephraim Katz: "His characters derive added authenticity from his squinty gaze, the result of the loss of an eye..." However, this production caused Falk a great deal of stress, both on and offstage. He struggled with memorizing a short speech, spending hours trying to memorize three lines. The next day at rehearsal, he reported behaving strangely and feeling a tingling sensation in his neck. This caught the attention of a stage manager, who told him to go "take a
Valium". Only later did Falk realize he was having an
anxiety attack. He would not go on to perform in any other plays, citing both this incident and his preference for acting in film and
television productions.
Early films '' (1963) in
Penelope (1966) Despite his stage success, a theatrical agent advised Falk not to expect much
film acting work because of his artificial eye. The film turned out to be Falk's breakout role. In his autobiography,
Just One More Thing (2006), Falk said his selection for the film from thousands of other
Off-Broadway actors was a "miracle" that "made my career" and that without it, he would not have received the other significant movie roles that he later played. Falk, who played Reles again in the 1960 TV series
The Witness, was nominated for a
Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance in the film. In 1961, multiple Academy Award-winning director
Frank Capra cast Falk in the comedy
Pocketful of Miracles. The film was Capra's last feature, and although it was not the commercial success he hoped it would be, he "gushed about Falk's performance." In 1961, Falk was nominated for an
Emmy Award for his performance in the episode "Cold Turkey" of
James Whitmore's short-lived series
The Law and Mr. Jones on
ABC. On September 29, 1961, Falk and
Walter Matthau guest-starred in the premiere episode, "The Million Dollar Dump", of ABC's crime drama
Target: The Corruptors, with
Stephen McNally and
Robert Harland. He won an Emmy for "
The Price of Tomatoes," a drama carried in 1962 on
The Dick Powell Show. In 1961, Falk earned the distinction of becoming the first actor to be nominated for an Oscar and an Emmy in the same year. He received nominations for his supporting roles in
Murder, Inc. and the television program
The Law and Mr. Jones. Incredibly, Falk repeated this double nomination in 1962, being nominated again for a supporting actor role in
Pocketful of Miracles and best actor in "The Price of Tomatoes," an episode of
The Dick Powell Show, for which he took home the award. Having had many roles in film and television during the early 1960s, Falk's first lead in a television series came with CBS's ''
The Trials of O'Brien''. The show ran from 1965 to 1966, its 22 episodes featuring Falk as a Shakespeare-quoting lawyer who defends clients while solving mysteries.
Columbo Although Falk appeared in numerous other television roles in the 1960s and 1970s, he is best known as the star of the TV series
Columbo, "everyone's favorite rumpled television detective." is a shabby and deceptively absent-minded police detective driving a
Peugeot 403, who had first appeared in the 1968 film
Prescription: Murder. Columbo was created by
William Link and
Richard Levinson. Peter Falk tries to analyze the character and notes the correlation between his own personality and Columbo's: With "general amazement", Falk notes: "The show is all over the world. I've been to little villages in Africa with maybe one TV set, and little kids will run up to me shouting, 'Columbo, Columbo!'" The first episode of
Columbo as a series was directed in 1971 by a 24-year-old
Steven Spielberg in one of his earliest directing jobs. Falk recalled the episode to Spielberg biographer
Joseph McBride: in episode "Double Shock" where Landau played a dual role as twin brothers, 1973 in episode "A Friend In Deed" aired on May 5, 1974 The character of Columbo had previously been played by
Bert Freed in a 1960 television episode of
The Chevy Mystery Show ("Enough Rope"), and by
Thomas Mitchell on
Broadway. Falk first played Columbo in
Prescription: Murder, a 1968 TV movie, and the 1970 pilot for the series,
Ransom for a Dead Man. From 1971 to 1978,
Columbo aired regularly on NBC as part of the
umbrella series NBC Mystery Movie. All episodes were of TV movie length, in a 90- or 120-minute slot including commercials. In 1989, the show returned on ABC in the form of a less frequent series of TV movies, still starring Falk, airing until 2003. Falk won four Emmys for his role as Columbo.
Columbo was so popular, co-creator
William Link wrote a series of short stories published as
The Columbo Collection (Crippen & Landru, 2010) which includes a drawing by Falk of himself as Columbo, while the cover features a caricature of Falk/Columbo by
Al Hirschfeld.
Lieutenant Columbo owns a
Basset Hound named Dog. Originally, it was not going to appear in the show because Peter Falk believed that it "already had enough gimmicks" but once the two met, Falk stated that Dog "was exactly the type of dog that Columbo would own", so he was added to the show and made his first appearance in 1972's "Étude In Black". Columbo's wardrobe was provided by Peter Falk; they were his own clothes, including the high-topped shoes and the shabby raincoat, which made its first appearance in
Prescription: Murder. Falk would often
ad lib his character's idiosyncrasies (fumbling through his pockets for a piece of evidence and discovering a grocery list, asking to borrow a pencil, becoming distracted by something irrelevant in the room at a dramatic point in a conversation with a suspect, etc.), inserting these into his performance as a way to keep his fellow actors off-balance. He felt it helped to make their confused and impatient reactions to Columbo's antics more genuine. According to Levinson, the catchphrase "one more thing" was conceived when he and Link were writing the play: "we had a scene that was too short, and we'd already had Columbo make his exit. We were too lazy to retype the scene, so we had him come back and say, 'Oh, just one more thing...' It was never planned."
Columbo featured an unofficial signature tune, the children's song "
This Old Man". It was introduced in the episode "Any Old Port in a Storm" in 1973 and the detective can be heard humming or whistling it often in subsequent films. Peter Falk admitted that it was a melody he enjoyed, and one day it became a part of his character. The tune was also used in various score arrangements throughout the three decades of the series, including opening and closing credits. A version of it, titled "Columbo", was created by one of the show's composers,
Patrick Williams. A few years prior to his death, Falk had expressed interest in returning to the role. In 2007, he said he had chosen a script for one last Columbo episode, "Columbo: Hear No Evil". The script was renamed "Columbo's Last Case". ABC declined the project. In response, producers for the series attempted to shop the project to foreign production companies. However, Falk was diagnosed with
dementia in late 2007. Falk died on June 23, 2011, aged 83. Peter Falk won four
Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Lieutenant Columbo in 1972, 1975, 1976 and 1990. Falk directed just one episode: "Blueprint for Murder" in 1971, although it is rumored that he and
John Cassavetes were largely responsible for direction duties on "Étude in Black" in 1972. Falk's own favorite
Columbo episodes were "Any Old Port in a Storm", "Forgotten Lady", "Now You See Him" and "Identity Crisis". Falk was rumored to be earning a record $300,000 per episode when he returned for
season 6 of
Columbo in 1976. This doubled to $600,000 per episode when the series made its comeback in 1989. In 1997, "Murder by the Book" was ranked at No. 16 in
TV Guides '100 Greatest Episodes of All Time' list. Two years later, the magazine ranked Lieutenant Columbo No. 7 on its '50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time' list.
Later career and Peter Falk in 1971 Falk was a close friend of independent film director
John Cassavetes and appeared in his films
Husbands,
A Woman Under the Influence, and, in a
cameo, at the end of
Opening Night. Cassavetes guest-starred in the
Columbo episode "Étude in Black" in 1972; Falk, in turn, co-starred with Cassavetes in Elaine May's film
Mikey and Nicky (1976). Falk describes his experiences working with Cassavetes, specifically remembering his directing strategies: "Shooting an actor when he might be unaware the camera was running." In 1978, Falk appeared on the comedy TV show
The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, portraying his Columbo character, with
Frank Sinatra the evening's victim. Director
William Friedkin said of Falk's role in his film ''
The Brink's Job'' (1978): "Peter has a great range from comedy to drama. He could break your heart or he could make you laugh." Falk continued to work in films, including his performance as an ex-
CIA officer of questionable sanity in the comedy
The In-Laws. Director
Arthur Hiller said during an interview that the "film started out because
Alan Arkin and Peter Falk wanted to work together. They went to Warner Brothers and said, 'We'd like to do a picture,' and Warner said fine ... and out came
The In-laws ... of all the films I've done,
The In-laws is the one I get the most comments on." In 1998, Falk returned to the New York stage to star in an
Off-Broadway production of
Arthur Miller's ''
Mr. Peters' Connections''. His previous stage work included shady real estate salesman Shelley "the Machine" Levine in the 1986 Boston/Los Angeles production of
David Mamet's prizewinning
Glengarry Glen Ross. Falk starred in a trilogy of holiday television movies –
A Town Without Christmas (2001),
Finding John Christmas (2003), and
When Angels Come to Town (2004) – in which he portrayed Max, a quirky
guardian angel who uses disguises and subterfuge to steer his charges onto the right path. In 2005, he starred in
The Thing About My Folks. Although movie critic
Roger Ebert was not impressed with most of the other actors, he wrote in his review: "... We discover once again what a warm and engaging actor Peter Falk is. I can't recommend the movie, but I can be grateful that I saw it, for Falk." In 2007, Falk appeared with
Nicolas Cage in the thriller
Next. Falk's autobiography,
Just One More Thing, was published in 2006. ==Personal life==