Peter Falk: The Unexpected “It Guy”
Falk wasn’t even the second actor eyed for the role. In fact, Lee J. Cobb was considered for the role after Crosby turned it down. Eventually, Falk called co-creator William Link after getting his hands on a copy of the script from his agents at William Morris. Falk told Link that he would “kill to play that cop.”
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Creators Link and Levinson knew Falk from their days of working in New York, and although he was the opposite of everything they envisioned for Lt. Columbo, they agreed on one thing: Falk had something that both men and women liked. The female demographic considered him to be “sexy,” while the males liked his unthreatening, humble, and blue-collar underdog character.