Some fictional characters are so intrinsically tied to the people who portrayed them that it’s nearly impossible to picture anyone else in that role. Columbo, the disheveled detective who helped take down the bad guys on TV over three decades on the series of the same name, just couldn’t be anyone but Peter Falk. That’s like suggesting someone other than Alan Alda play the television version of Hawkeye on “M.A.S.H.”! Dressed in an eternally-wrinkled, too-big trenchcoat and always chomping on a cigar, Falk brings both a unique appearance and performance to the character, looking and acting unlike any other cop on TV. Without Falk, “Columbo” may never have been successful, and it certainly wouldn’t have been the same. Back when the series was first being developed, however, the people in charge had some very different performers in mind.
“Columbo” was created by writers Richard Levinson and William Link, who first developed the character for a 1960 episode of an anthology series called “The Chevy Mystery Show,” where he was played by character actor Burt Freed. They later made a play with the character called “Prescription: Murder” where he was played by Thomas Mitchell. When it came time to make the play into an NBC movie of the week, they needed someone new to portray their genius detective, and they were leaning towards at least one very famous name — crooner Bing Crosby.
Peter Falk was perfect but the writers had other ideas
During the TV movie’s development, which led to the pilot for the television series, the writers wanted Lee J. Cobb, the Oscar-nominated actor from “12 Angry Men” and “On the Waterfront” or Bing Crosby, the singer who also starred in the 1954 film “White Christmas.” Cobb had other commitments (not only that, but he died in 1976, only five years into the series’ original seven-year run). Crosby, on the other hand, famously turned down the role because he thought it would interfere with his golfing. The music and film star had mostly retired at that point and just wanted to focus on his golf game, not worry about the stresses of starring in a TV movie.
It was the director of “Prescription: Murder,” Richard Irving, who helped convince the writers to take another look at Falk, even though they thought he was much too young to play the wizened sleuth. Falk brought a different kind of energy to the role than either of the previous actors to play him or the men the writers pictured, but in the end, he was the perfect fit and he truly made Columbo his own.
Thank goodness for Falk
At the time, Falk was mostly doing guest roles in other shows, including “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour” and “The Twilight Zone,” so tackling the role of the main character in a TV movie (and later a television series) was a pretty big step up for him. He ended up being perfect in the role, making Columbo so much more than just another TV cop. He’s almost a mythical figure, a detective who frequently takes the wealthy down a peg and doesn’t really fit the mold of the Los Angeles Police Department. Watching “Columbo” is deeply soothing because we know he’s always going to get the villain in the end. The murder mystery isn’t the point as much as it is watching Falk as Columbo, puttering around and figuring it all out.
Peter Falk brought a lot of himself to the character, from his laid-back attitude to the tan overcoat that has become linked to the scruffy detective. He bought the original tan coat himself (it was a raincoat, not a trenchcoat, which it was replaced with in later seasons) and even brought his own scuffed shoes instead of getting new ones from wardrobe. Falk made Columbo into a character for the ages, so we all won out when he was cast.