Peter Falk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Peter Michael Falk

Peter Falk as Columbo on the DVD cover of Columbo - The Complete First Season
Born September 16, 1927 (age 79)
Flag of United States New York City, New York, USA
Notable roles Lt. Columbo (Columbo)

Peter Michael Falk (born September 16, 1927) is an American actor of Jewish descent. He was born in New York City, the son of Michael Falk and Madeline Hauser Falk. Falk is a descendent of Miksa Falk, who was the editor of the liberal Hungarian newspaper, the Pester Lloyd.

Falk attended Ossining High School in Westchester County, NY and was president of his class. After graduating, he joined the Merchant Marine as a cook, before completing a Bachelor of Arts in political science at the New School for Social Research in 1951. Gaining a Masters degree in public administration at Syracuse University in 1953, he applied unsuccessfully for a job with the CIA before becoming a management analyst with the Connecticut State Budget Bureau in Hartford.

After deciding to be an actor and studying at the White Barn Theatre in Westport, Connecticut, in 1956 at the age of 29, he left his job with the Budget Bureau and moved to Greenwich Village. He made his professional debut Off Broadway in Molière's Don Juan at the Fourth Street Theatre on January 3, 1956, and the same year his Broadway debut playing an English soldier in Shaw's Saint Joan with Siobhán McKenna. He won an Emmy for "The Price of Tomatoes", a Dick Powell Theater TV drama.

He is best known for the title role in the long-running TV series Columbo, a shabby and ostensibly absent-minded police detective. In reality Columbo possessed a keen mind and invariably solved his cases by paying close attention to tiny inconsistencies in a suspect's story, hounding them until they confessed; he merely put on a good show of being dim-witted so that the criminals and even his colleagues would be more at ease around him. Columbo's signature technique was to exit the scene of an interview, only to stop in the doorway to ask a suspect "just one more thing" (the title of Falk's recent memoir), which always brought to light the key inconsistency. The role won Falk five Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.

Peter Falk and his close friend, Patrick McGoohan
Peter Falk and his close friend, Patrick McGoohan

Falk is also known for his roles in several films, including his performance as a possible ex-CIA agent of dubious sanity in the Arthur Hiller comedy The In-Laws. He also starred in two films directed by friend John Cassavetes, A Woman Under the Influence, (opposite Gena Rowlands) and Husbands (with Cassavetes and Ben Gazzara) and in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire.

Falk has been nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award twice, for Murder, Inc., and Pocketful of Miracles.

Falk wears an ocular prosthetic ("glass eye"). His right eye was surgically removed at the age of three because of a malignant tumor.

Falk is also an artist and has had several gallery shows and exhibits. He started to draw as a way to pass time while filming on location.

He married Alice Mayo on April 17, 1960 and has two daughters, Catherine (who is a real life private investigator) and Jackie. They were divorced in 1976 and on December 7, 1977 he married Shera Danese.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Television Work

  • The Power and the Glory (1959)
  • The Twilight Zone:The Mirror (1961)
  • Cry Vengeance! (1961)
  • The Million Dollar Incident (1961)
  • Ambassador at Large (1964)
  • The Trials of O'Brien (1965-1966)
  • Brigadoon (1966)
  • Prescription: Murder (1968)
  • A Hatful of Rain (1968)
  • A Step Out of Line (1971)
  • Columbo: Ransom for a Dead Man (1971)
  • Columbo: Murder by the Book (1971)
  • Columbo: Death Lends a Hand (1971)
  • Columbo: Dead Weight (1971)
  • Columbo: Suitable for Framing (1971)
  • Columbo: Lady in Waiting (1971)
  • Columbo: Short Fuse (1972)
  • Columbo: Blueprint for Murder (1972)
  • Columbo: Étude in Black (1972)
  • Columbo: The Greenhouse Jungle (1972)
  • Columbo: The Most Crucial Game (1972)
  • Columbo: Dagger of the Mind (1972)
  • Columbo: Requiem for a Falling Star (1973)
  • Columbo: A Stitch in Crime (1973)
  • Columbo: The Most Dangerous Match (1973)
  • Columbo: Double Shock (1973)
  • Columbo: Lovely But Lethal (1973)
  • Columbo: Any Old Port in a Storm (1973)
  • Columbo: Candidate for Crime (1973)
  • Columbo: Double Exposure (1973)
  • Columbo: Publish or Perish (1974)
  • Columbo: Mind Over Mayhem (1974)
  • Columbo: Swan Song (1974)
  • Columbo: A Friend in Deed (1974)
  • Columbo: An Exercise in Fatality (1974)
  • Columbo: Negative Reaction (1974)
  • Columbo: By Dawn's Early Light (1974)
  • Columbo: Troubled Waters (1975)
  • Columbo: Playback (1975)
  • Columbo: A Deadly State of Mind (1975)
  • Columbo: Forgotten Lady (1975)
  • Columbo: A Case of Immunity (1975)
  • Columbo: Identity Crisis (1975)
  • Columbo: A Matter of Honor (1976)
  • Griffin and Phoenix: A Love Story (1976)
  • Columbo: Now You See Him (1976)
  • Columbo: Last Salute to the Commodore (1976)
  • Columbo: Fade in to Murder (1976)
  • Columbo: Old Fashioned Murder (1976)
  • Columbo: The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case (1977)
  • Columbo: Try and Catch Me (1977)
  • Columbo: Murder Under Glass (1978)
  • Columbo: Make Me a Perfect Murder (1978)
  • Columbo: How to Dial a Murder (1978)
  • Columbo: The Conspirators (1978)
  • Columbo: Columbo Goes to the Guillotine (1989)
  • Columbo: Murder, Smoke and Shadows (1989)
  • Columbo: Sex and the Married Detective (1989)
  • Columbo: Grand Deceptions (1989)
  • Columbo: Murder, a Self Portrait (1989)
  • Columbo: Columbo Cries Wolf (1990)
  • Columbo: Agenda for Murder (1990)
  • Columbo: Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo (1990)
  • Columbo: Uneasy Lies the Crown (1990)
  • Columbo: Murder in Malibu (1990)
  • Columbo: Columbo Goes to College (1990)
  • Columbo: Caution! Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health (1991)
  • Columbo: Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star (1991)
  • Columbo: Death Hits the Jackpot (1991)
  • Columbo: No Time to Die (1992)
  • Columbo: A Bird in the Hand (1992)
  • Columbo: It's All In the Game (1993)
  • Columbo: Butterfly in Shades of Grey (1993)
  • Columbo: Undercover (1994)
  • The Sunshine Boys (1995)
  • Columbo: Strange Bedfellows (1995)
  • Columbo: A Trace of Murder (1997)
  • Columbo: Ashes to Ashes (1998)
  • From Where I Sit (2000)
  • A Storm in Summer (2000)
  • Columbo: Murder with Too Many Notes (2000)
  • A Town Without Christmas (2001)
  • The Lost World (2001)
  • Columbo: Columbo Likes the Nightlife (2003)
  • Wilder Days (2003)
  • Finding John Christmas (2003)
  • When Angels Come to Town (2004)

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Falk, Peter Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION American actor; acting on film and television
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/e/t/Peter_Falk_262e.html"