Peter Falk Biography

- Falk is a Certified Public Accountant.

- Falk puts damper on a rumour that his trademark Columbo raincoat has been placed in the Smithsonian Institution: he instead says it's in his upstairs closet.

- Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures and renowned for his vulgarity, rejected Falk, declaring, "For the same money, I can get an actor with two eyes!".

- Once when Falk was playing in a Little League game, the umpire called him out. Falk thought that he was safe. He pulled his glass eye out of its socket and handed it to the umpire, telling him, "Here, I think you might need this."

- Columbo's first name is never mentioned in the series. Though it was reported to be Philip Columbo by Fred Worth in his book 'Super Trivia' (1977) and later copied by the makers of Trivial Pursuit in 1984, Worth admitted to having fabricated the name as a means of proof of copyright in case someone were to have pirated his book (which someone did). The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, but was thrown out in the end.

- Columbo's wife, who he speaks of often, is never seen in the series.

- Falk had a street renamed after him in his hometown of Ossining, New York. To unveil the Peter Falk Place street sign, he pulled off a trademark Columbo raincoat covering the sign.

- Falk has inspired at least two Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters. Muttley in Wacky Races (1968) was based on Falk's Max Meen from The Great Race (1965), and Mumbly, the detective dog on The New Tom & Jerry Show (1975) was loosely based on Columbo.

- In 1961, he became the first actor nominated for an Oscar and an Emmy in the same year.