Peter Falk

Peter Michael Falk (September 16, 1927 – June 23, 2011) was an American film and television actor, comedian, singer and television director and producer.

He graduated in 1945.

Falk briefly attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.

He then tried to join the armed services, as World War II was drawing to a close.

Rejected because of his missing eye, he joined the United States Merchant Marine and served as a cook and mess boy.

He transferred 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.

Falk traveled in Europe and worked on a railroad in Yugoslavia for six months.

Falk obtained a Master of Public Administration degree at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University in 1953.

The program was designed to train civil servants for the federal government, a career that Falk said in his memoir he had "no interest in and no aptitude for."

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.

Falk was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for Murder, Inc. (1960) and Pocketful of Miracles (1961), and won his first Emmy Award in 1962 for The Dick Powell Theatre.

He was the first actor to be nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy Award in the same year, achieving the feat twice (1961 and 1962).

He went on to appear in such films as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Great Race (1965), Anzio (1968), Murder by Death (1976), The Cheap Detective (1978), The Brink's Job (1978), The In-Laws (1979), The Princess Bride (1987), Wings of Desire (1987), The Player (1992), and Next (2007), as well as many television guest roles.

He is best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo on the NBC/ABC series Columbo (1968–1978, 1989–2003), for which he won four Primetime Emmy Awards (1972, 1975, 1976, 1990) and a Golden Globe Award (1973).

He first starred as Columbo in two 2-hour "World Premiere" TV pilots; the first with Gene Barry in 1968 and the second with Lee Grant in 1971.

Falk was also known for his collaborations with filmmaker, actor, and personal friend John Cassavetes, acting in films such as Husbands (1970), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Elaine May's Mikey and Nicky (1976) and the Columbo episode "Étude in Black" (1972).

Born in The Bronx, New York City, Falk was the son of Michael Peter Falk, owner of a clothing and dry goods store, and his wife, Madeline (née Hochhauser), an accountant and buyer.

Both his parents were Jewish.

Falk's right eye was surgically removed when he was three because of a retinoblastoma.

He wore an artificial eye for most of his life.

The artificial eye was the cause of his trademark squint.

Despite this limitation, as a boy he participated in team sports, mainly baseball and basketball.

The show then aired as part of The NBC Mystery Movie series from 1971 to 1978, and again on ABC from 1989 to 2003.

In 1996, TV Guide ranked Falk No. 21 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list.

In a 1997 interview in Cigar Aficionado magazine with Arthur Marx, Falk said: "I remember once in high school the umpire called me out at third base when I was sure I was safe. I got so mad I took out my glass eye, handed it to him and said, 'Try this.' I got such a laugh you wouldn't believe."

Falk's first stage appearance was at age 12 in The Pirates of Penzance at Camp High Point in upstate New York, where one of his camp counselors was Ross Martin.

Falk attended Ossining High School in Westchester County, New York, where he was a star athlete and president of his senior class.

Falk said of the experience in 1997: "There they don't care if you're blind or not. The only one on a ship who has to see is the captain. And in the case of the Titanic, he couldn't see very well, either."

Falk recalls this period in his autobiography: "A year on the water was enough for me, so I returned to college. I didn't stay long. Too itchy. What to do next? I signed up to go to Israel to fight in the war on its attack on Egypt. I wasn't passionate about Israel, I wasn't passionate about Egypt—I just wanted more excitement … I got assigned a ship and departure date but the war was over before the ship ever sailed."

After a year and a half in the Merchant Marine, Falk returned to Hamilton College and also attended the University of Wisconsin.

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."

While working in Hartford, Falk joined a community theater group called the Mark Twain Masquers, where he performed in plays that included The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, The Crucible, and The Country Girl by Clifford Odets.

Falk also studied with Eva Le Gallienne, who was giving an acting class at the White Barn Theatre in Westport, Connecticut.

Falk later recalled how he "lied his way" into the class, which was for professional actors.

He drove down to Westport from Hartford every Wednesday, when the classes were held, and was usually late.

In his 1997 interview with Arthur Marx in Cigar Aficionado Magazine, Falk said of Le Gallienne: "One evening when I arrived late, she looked at me and asked, 'Young man, why are you always late?' and I said, 'I have to drive down from Hartford.'" She looked down her nose and said, "What do you do in Hartford? There's no theater there. How do you make a living acting?"

Falk confessed he was not a professional actor.

He returned to New York, enrolling at Syracuse University, but he recalled in his 2006 memoir, Just One More Thing, that he was unsure what he wanted to do with his life for years after leaving high school.

He received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013.