Seven Things to Know About Peter Falk

1. Surgeons removed Peter Falk's right eye, along with a malignant tumor, when he was three years old. In a 1997 interview in Cigar Aficionado, Falk famously shared a baseball anecdote: "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." To compensate for the lack of movement in his right eye, Falk naturally squinted or tilted his head--which became one of his trademarks.

2. Prior to becoming an actor, Peter Falk served in the U.S. Merchant Marine (he tried to enlist in the Armed Forces in 1945, but was rejected because of his vision). He attended several colleges, eventually earning a Master's degree in public administration from Syracuse University. After graduation, he worked as an efficiency expert for the state of Connecticut. During that time, he began acting in an amateur theatre troupe. That led to taking acting classes with Broadway legend Eva La Gallienne. He used a letter of recommendation from her to secure an agent from the William Morris Agency.

3. Peter Falk’s career breakout came in May 1956 when he starred as bartender Rocky Pioggi in a highly acclaimed Off-Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh. The cast also included Jason Robards as Hickey and, in a supporting role, Conrad Bain (long before Diff'rent Strokes). Later that year, Falk made his Broadway debut in Saint Joan. He appeared on Broadway in four plays, notably originating the lead role in Neil Simon's dark comedy The Prisoner of Second Avenue in 1971. Mike Nichols directed and Lee Grant played Falk's wife. When it was adapted into a film in 1975, Jack Lemmon and Anne Bancroft replaced Falk and Grant.

4. After small roles in movies and television in the late 1950s, the gangster drama Murder, Inc. launched Peter Falk's film career in 1960. He earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for playing real-life 1930s hitman Abe Reles. The following year, Falk earned a second Oscar nomination for playing a gangster, this time in the sentimental comedy Pocketful of Miracles (1961). He would never be Oscar-nominated again.

5. His film success led to a regular TV series called The Trials of O'Brien, which ran for 22 episodes during the 1965-66 season. Falk played disorganized, Shakespeare-quoting attorney Daniel J. "Danny" O'Brien. The other series regulars were Elaine Stritch as his secretary "Miss G" and Joanna Barnes as his ex-wife Katie. The show's guest stars included: Faye Dunaway, Britt Ekland, Gene Hackman, Frank Langella, Angela Lansbury, Cloris Leachman, Roger Moore, Rita Moreno, Estelle Parsons, Brock Peters, and Martin Sheen.

"Just one more thing...."

6. Peter Falk's next series had him playing one of television's most beloved characters: Los Angeles homicide detective Lieutenant Columbo. You can read about the history of Columbo in our review of Prescription: Murder. Shockingly, series creators Richard Levinson and William Link originally wanted Bing Crosby to play Columbo. They also considered Lee J. Cobb, but eventually settled on Falk. Even then, Falk resisted the grind of doing another weekly series. However, in 1971, when the show was pitched as a rotating series on The NBC Mystery Movie, he agreed--and the rest is television history. Peter Falk was nominated for ten Emmys for playing Columbo; he won Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series four times. 

7. Peter Falk met his first wife, Alyce Mayo, while they were students at Syracuse University in the 1950s. However, they didn't marry until the 1960s. The couple adopted two daughters, but eventually divorced in 1976. The following year, Peter Falk married actress Shera Danese, who was 22 years younger than him. Danese appeared in two episodes of Columbo and three of the later Columbo made-for-TV movies. She played one of the murderers in Columbo: A Trace of Murder (1997).