Another Great One Gone

Every now and there is someone's death who should not affect me but yet does.  When Peter Falk died last week, I felt a real loss.  I have enjoyed Peter Falk ever since I seen Robin and the Seven Hoods.  He portrayed Guy Gisborne.  After that I would notice him as a guest star on various television programs.  He always stood out; an unintentional scene stealer..  Then he became Columbo.  Not only was he my favorite TV cop, he was also my parent's favorite.  But he was more than a humble rumpled crime solver.  He was the story teller in "The Princess Bride" and the story writer in "Tune in Tomorrow."   "Tune in Tomorrow" is one of the best Radio Soap Opera satires that has been written, and the success of the movie is mostly on his shoulders.

As a comedic actor he was tops.  Watch him play the Sam Spade parody in "Murder by Death."  Or as Paul Reiser's father in "The Thing About My Folks."  He's fantastic as the title character in Elmore Leonard's "Pronto."  He also shines as the 100 year old Rocky Holzchek in "Roommates."  This one is a true story.

When Peter first tried to get into the movies, he met with legendary Harry Cohn. President of Columbia Pictures.  Cohn told Peter, "Why should I hire you, when I can hire another actor with two eyes for the same price?"  This determined Peter even more to break into the movies.  Whereas Cohn thought nobody would be interested in a one-eyed actor, the public reacted in the opposite way.  Peter had lost his left right eye to cancer when he was three years old.  Being so young, he never looked at it as a handicap, and he proved his merit right as well, if not better, than everyone else.

As a guest on Craig Kilborn's show in 1999, Kilborn ask Peter to "Use the words 'Falk' and 'you' in a sentence". Falk chuckled a bit, touched his nose, and replied simply: "Falk . . . you!"