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Peter Falk

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Peter Michael Falk

Peter Falk as Columbo on the DVD cover of Columbo - The Complete First Season
Born September 16 1927 (age 82)
Image:Flag of the United States.svg New York City, New York, USA
Notable roles Lt. Columbo (Columbo)

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

After gaining a Masters degree in public administration at Syracuse University in 1953, he applied unsuccessfully for a job with the CIA, became a management analyst with the Connecticut State Budget Bureau in Hartford, decided to be an actor and studied at the White Barn Theatre in Westport, Connecticut. In 1956 at the age of 29 he left his job with the Budget Bureau, moved to Greenwich Village, and made his professional debut Off Broadway in Molière's Dom 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 Siobhan McKenna.

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 his recent memoir), which always brought to light the key inconsistency. The role won him five Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe.

Image:Patrick McGoohan and Peter Falk.jpg

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 cancer.

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.



[edit] Filmography

[edit] Television Work

[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
de:Peter Falk

eo:Peter Falk fr:Peter Falk it:Peter Falk hu:Peter Falk nl:Peter Falk ja:ピーター・フォーク no:Peter Falk pl:Peter Falk pt:Peter Falk ru:Фальк, Питер fi:Peter Falk sv:Peter Falk

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