Peter Falk Biography

Film and television actor, born in New York, USA. After serving in the merchant marines, he earned an MBA at Syracuse University and worked for the Connecticut budget bureau. Taking up amateur theatre, he made his stage debut off Broadway in 1955. From 1958 he enjoyed a modest success in such films as The In-Laws (1979) and in various television dramas. Having lost the use of his right eye in an accident at age three, he usually played urban types such as gangsters or working-class men, but his most popular role was as the star of the television detective series, Columbo, in which he employed his rough-hewn mannerisms to create a beloved character.