Peter Falk: He Was Not The First Actor Considered For "Columbo" | Herbie J Pilato | NewsBreak Original (2024)

For decades he played the beloved TV detective Columbo, which earned him Emmy awards, Golden Globes, and millions of fans. However according to FactsVerse.com, Peter Falk was not the first choice to play the part.

The role was originally created for the stage by Thomas Mitchel, the actor who portrayed Vivien Leigh’s father in the classic feature film, Gone With The Wind. Sadly, Mitchel before the original Columbo TV movie went into production.

As further documented on FactsVerse.com, "The producers then set their sights on Bing Crosby. But reportedly he was much too busy playing golf at the time to commit himself to a TV series. Lee J Cobb of On The Waterfront was also considered for the role but also turned it down.

"Even Falk took some convincing before signing the contract. He really didn’t want to be tied down to the grind of being on a series, but he had just been robbed of $100,000 by his shady former manager and needed the cash, so he took the gig to ease some of his financial woes."

As FactsVerse.com continued to chronicle, toward the end of his life and career, "Falk overcame multiple roadblocks that almost put an end to his career as an actor.

"Falk wasn’t your typical Hollywood star. He was just shy of 5’6”, had a glass right eye (the result of surgery he had at the age of three to remove a malignant tumor), and lacked the chiseled good looks of a typical Hollywood leading man.

"Although he had performed in school plays, Falk didn’t really start focusing professionally on acting until he was 29. He was the son of wealthy parents and spent several years of his youth drifting around in search of adventure.

"He really had his sights on becoming a CIA spy at one point, but he had worked building railroads in Communist Yugoslavia for six months so that didn’t necessarily look great on his application – plus there was the matter of his glass eye. The CIA basically laughed him out of the building.

"Since he couldn’t be an agent or a rifleman like he really wanted, he decided to join the merchant marines instead but he ended up hating it. He then worked as an efficiency expert for the Budget Bureau in Connecticut.

"After growing tired of that line of work as well, Falk then shifted his focus to acting, but his agent cautioned him that with only one eye he would never make it to Hollywood," FactsVerse.com concluded.

Clearly, Falk's agent was incorrect.