Falk, Peter

Falk, Peter

(1927– ) movie/television actor; born in New York. After serving in the merchant marines, he earned an M.B.A. at Syracuse University and worked for the Connecticut budget bureau. Taking up amateur theater, he made his stage debut off Broadway in 1955. He began in films in 1958 and enjoyed a modest success in such movies as The In-Laws (1979) and in various television dramas. Having lost the use of his right eye in an accident at age three, he usually played urban types—gangsters or working-class men—but his most popular role was as the star of the television detective series, Columbo, in which he employed his rough-hewn mannerisms to create a beloved character.