| Author | Message | ||
     Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.182.17.186 |
We loved Peter in everything he did. We watched 'Columbo' reruns religiously every Sunday afternoon on UTV. It was an absolute pleasure. One of the few certainties left in life was knowing that even if the story was rubbish, Peter Falk was brilliant in it. R.I.P | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.27.14.15 |
Shit! He was brilliant! | ||
| Mbfg (Mbfg) Username: Mbfg Registered: 09-2010 Posted From: 92.4.171.68 |
I loved loved loved Columbo when it appeared in the 1970s. I remember the pilot episode when it came on oen Saturday night and was puzzled as to what on earth this American TV movie was supposed to be about. I'm pretty sure Gene Barry played the murderous doctor and my dad and me thought he was going to be the star of the film. Then in walked this scruffy little character...And the rest is history. For while it was my favroutie television programme and oen of cycle of US detective programme that rolled through Tuesday evenings on ITV. I recall seeing Falk as a villian who gets whats coming to him in an episode of "The Untouchables" as well. Sad, sad news. Cheers Terry | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
Rotten news. A wonderful actor- great as Columbo, and fantastic in The Princess Bride. | ||
| Allybird (Allybird) Username: Allybird Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 49.227.237.81 |
Sad. Loved him in Wings of Desire. | ||
| Joel (Joel) Username: Joel Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 2.24.18.49 |
Very sad news. Marvellous actor. I like to believe that as his coffin is lowered into the ground, Falk will emerge saying "Just one more thing..." | ||
| Simon Bestwick (Simon_b) Username: Simon_b Registered: 10-2008 Posted From: 86.24.209.217 |
Joel-  | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.40.254.69 |
Yeah, he was one of the best. Sad stuff that he's gone, though it may be for the best, as I believe he was suffering from Alzheimer's. A fine body of work left behind. | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.14.125 |
I loved him too, and the whole series. Here's an article about how it was developed: http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/created.htm What do people think of William Peter Blatty's assertion that Columbo was based on Lt. Kinderman from THE EXORCIST? (He doesn't blame Peter Falk for this, by the way - he has nothing but good things to say about him). | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.19.77 |
Very, very sad news. I have nothing but happily nostalgic memories of watching 'Columbo' with Mum & Dad in the 70s. Blatty's Lt. Kinderman is one of the great literary detectives, imo, and if he wasn't the inspiration for Columbo then it's one hell of a coincidence. But Columbo the character stands on his own as one of the legendary TV creations... | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.14.125 |
That article portrays Falk as being quite pugilistic, which is fine I suppose if it's in the service of the art. I wonder can someone radiate a sense of innate goodness and still be a bad person? For my own piece of mind I'd like to think not. I'm not talking about charm here - many charming people are manifestly bad 'uns, I'm talking about warmth. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.19.77 |
The eyes are the windows to the soul, Proto. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.49.244 |
Wasn't the pilot episode with Donald Pleasance as a murderous wine connoisseur? Loved the series. You knew from the outset what you were going to get, yet you still were curious as to how he would go about it. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.19.77 |
The Ray Milland one always stuck with me. Wasn't it about dogs that had been trained to kill on signal? | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.14.125 |
There were two pilots, I think. Spielberg directed one of the first episodes, and you can tell - for a TV show it feels directed. Every time I saw Robert Culp's name appear in the credits, I tutted... "that damned revolving door prison system..." | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.49.244 |
Whenever I see Rober Culp I have to think of the Outer Limits episode "The Architects of Fear". | ||
| Seanmcd (Seanmcd) Username: Seanmcd Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 86.182.17.186 |
The Ray Milland one always stuck with me. Wasn't it about dogs that had been trained to kill on signal? Yeah Stevie, loved that episode, the kill command was 'Rosebud'. | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 85.222.86.21 |
RIP Peter Falk. Is there no mention of his friendship with Patrick McGoohan and their writing partnership? | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 82.4.19.77 |
I wasn't aware of that link, Frank! I've just been struck by another bizarre example of synchronicity. Today, as anyone who has read my posts will have noticed, I've been thinking a lot about 'Crime And Punishment' as the greatest crime novel ever written and about Columbo as the most iconic TV detective ever created (although Jack Regan is the greatest). I go into Wiki to read up on Dostoevsky's masterpiece and what do I find? "According to Columbo's creator, William Link, the American detective, Columbo, is based in part upon Porfiry Petrovich." For anyone who hasn't read the book (and despite its age 'Crime And Punishment' remains a riveting read and my second favourite novel of all time) Porfiry Petrovich is the deceptively affable detective who dogs Raskolnikov's steps, using innocuous questions to befuddle and unnerve him, just like Lt. Kinderman - another of the great literary detectives. Interesting... | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.27.14.15 |
That's well documented, man. | ||
| Stevie Walsh (Stephenw) Username: Stephenw Registered: 03-2009 Posted From: 194.32.31.1 |
Was news to me! | ||
| Protodroid (Protodroid) Username: Protodroid Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 109.79.31.33 |
Funny how few people who create serious art admit to being influenced by pulp. It's usually George Lucas pretending his laser fights have something to do with Joseph Campbell. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.27.14.15 |
It's a postmodern theme, isn't it? The erasure of high and low art. Doesn't Salmon Rushdie talk about being influenced by the telly? I know Martin Amis does. | ||
| Thomasb (Thomasb) Username: Thomasb Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.25.141.120 |
A great actor. I first saw him in a long-forgotten TV show called "The Trails of O'Brien" about a down-at-the-heels NY lawyer, a rumpled Perry Mason. I was the only kid in my 6th grade class who watched it (It was on opposite "Batman" or something). | ||
| Stephen Theaker (Stephen_theaker) Username: Stephen_theaker Registered: 12-2009 Posted From: 92.232.184.206 |
"That article portrays Falk as being quite pugilistic..." I saw him on an episode of Dinner for Five with Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau and he gave them a really hard time... |