“Just once, I’d like to see somebody die regular on this case.”

In this morning’s post I wrote that I always find it hard to believe that TV stars I admired when I was a kid have gotten old and died.  Naturally, by writing that, I killed somebody.  I don’t believe Peter Falk’s gone.

There’s a lot of Colombo showing all over the web right now, so here, here’s Falk in my second favorite of his roles that weren’t Colombo, channeling Bogart in Neil Simon’s The Cheap Detective.

“He was a Stuka dive bomber and I was Poland.”

“Don’t call me darling in front of the police with a dead husband.”

 

Comments

[El Jefe]

In honor (as you've already paid) of another great sideman lost in the last week, I would like to take a moment and pay tribute to Falk's genius -- and that's not too strong a word, he was a genius when given the task -- as a true sideman, not a "supporting player" but the guy just off center who brings it all together so everyone can shine.

- For the kids, The Princess Bride:
"But you don't want to hear about any of that kissing stuff."

- The In Laws, where his work on screen gave us one of Alan Arkin's best performances,
"Serpentine! Serpentine!"

- The Great Race, where he and Jack Lemmon were the best moustache-twirler and henchman ever put in live action:
Max (Falk): Wait'll you see what I did to car Number Five!
Professor Fate (Lemmon): Max ... we're car Number Five.

This news hurt my heart. (And that on a good day, for your state and the country.) We can't afford to lose too many like him.