Peter Falk was born Peter Michael Falk in New York on 16th September 1927. He was an only child. At aged 3 his eye was removed because he had a cancerous growth in it. On one occasion during a school lesson the teacher had to leave for a few minutes and left Peter in charge. He took his eye out and put in onto the desk and said "I've got my eye on you!" Peter's best friend was polio victim Mike Holohan. As a teenager he went through a rebellious phase and was often in trouble for misdemeanours. He represented his school at various sports and was class president. He was asked to fill in in the school play when one of the cast was sick. He played a detective and his part was a roaring success!
In 1945 he left school and joined the merchant marine as a cook. Apparently pork chops were his speciality and that was all he ever cooked! After leaving the merchant marine in 1947, Falk went to Hamilton College and then to the New School for social research in Manhattan. He graduated in 1951 with a degree in political science. He then travelled around Europe for some months, still unsure of what path he wanted to follow in his career. He wanted to be a spy but was rejected by the CIA. He continued acting in his spare time and in 1955 the legendary acting teacher Eva La Galleon told him he should be an actor. He followed her advice and spent the next five years doing a number of Broadway productions. His agent got him an interview with the then president of Columbia Pictures, who told Peter he was concerned by his 'deficiency' and cruelly said "for the same price I'll get an actor with both eyes".
Peter was undettered and in 1960 he got his first major television role in The law and Mr. Jones, for which he received an Emmy nomination. He also starred in a B-movie called Murder, Inc., for which he received an Academy Award nomination. The same year he married Alice Mayo. They had two adopted daughters together. In 1962 Peter received an Academy Award nomination for Pocketful of miracles. He was Emmy nominated for The Price of Tomatoes and this time he won. In 1967 NBC/Universal Studios decided to adapt Richard Levinson and William Link's stage play Prescription Murder for television. It featured a detective called Lieutenant Columbo. They tried to persuade Bing Crosby to take the role but he was unavailable. Peter Falk was very keen to play Columbo and he was cast in the role. Prescription Murder was a success but Peter was dubious about committing to making television shows on a weekly basis, because he thought the quality would suffer.
Three years later, in 1970, another pilot episode was commissioned and a series of Columbo was planned. In the 1970s NBC had a number of detective series. They showed a different detective show each week, Columbo being one of them. Columbo was a huge success. The raincoat that became Columbo's trademark belonged to Falk and he thought it was perfect for Columbo. Peter said that he thought he and Columbo had a number of similarites, saying "we are both shabby dressers, details are important to us and we are both relentless". The producers of the show would certainly agree, as they often clashed with Peter, who had firm opinions on all aspects of the shows production. Although the contribution of Levinson and Link to the success of the show should never be overlooked, it is hard to imagine anyone else other than Peter Falk playing the Lieutenant. He seemed to have a clear vision of what Columbo was like from the start and combined with the acting talent he had, he was dedicated to making Levinson and Link's creation into one of the greatest television characters of all time. Falk received four Emmy awards for his performance in the role.
In the mid 1970s Peter and Alice Falk divorced. Soon after Peter met actress Shera Danese and they were married in 1977. Shera appeared in the 1978 Columbo episode Murder Under Glass. In 1978, NBC dropped Columbo, as the series had become (in their opinion) stale. Peter Falk's film career continued to thrive. He had already made a name for himself in independent films working alongside his friend John Cassavetes and had many mainstream successes too.
In 1989 ABC made the decision to revive Columbo. Peter, who had always taken a keen interest in all aspects of the show's production, was made executive producer. Sixteen episodes were made between 1989 and 1992, but in the next decade only eight episodes were made. The last episode Columbo Likes the Nightlife was broadcast in 2003 and by now, the 75 year old Falk looked too old for the role. Don't employees of the L.A.P.D. retire at 65? Falk's marriage to Shera survived, though they had their ups and downs in the early years. Shera once told Peter that she intended to buy him a sign that he could wear around his neck at the dinner table saying 'Do not disturb'. In his spare time Falk enjoys drawing the human form with charcoal and pastels.
