Actor Peter Falk died 23 June 2011. Born 16 September 1927 in New York City, he was best known as the rumpled detective Columbo, who he played for more than 30 years. He won five Emmy Awards (four for playing Columbo, in 1972, 1975, 1976, and 1990) and one for The Dick Powell Theatre in 1962. He was nominated for seven other Emmys and two Academy Awards.
At the age of 3, he had one eye removed because of cancer. In 1963, he said “When something like that happens early, you learn to live with it. It became the joke of the neighborhood. If the umpire ruled me out on a bad call, I’d take the fake eye out and hand it to him.” Falk served as a cook in the merchant marine, and then received a master’s degree in public administration from Syracuse University. He went to work as an efficiency expert for the budget bureau of the state of Connecticut, and also acted in amateur theater, where he was encouraged to pursuit acting as a professional. He appeared in The Iceman Cometh off-Broadway, and later as Joseph Stalin in The Passion of Joseph D. In 1971, he found fame in Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue.
Falk’s film debut came in 1958, in Wind Across the Everglades, and he built a career as a character actor. Columbo came in 1971, as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie series in rotation with McCloud and McMillan and Wife.
His genre appearances include: Next (2007), When Angels Come to Town (2004), Finding John Christmas (2003), The Lost World (2001), Faraway, So Close! (1993), Vibes (1988), The Princess Bride (1987), Wings of Desire (1987), and The Twilight Zone (1961).
His first marriage, to Alyce Mayo, ended in divorce in 1976, after 16 years. The following year, he married Shera Danese, who survives him, as do his two children from his first marriage.