Community Corner

Peter Falk to Receive Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

The actor will be posthumously awarded a star on Thursday.

-By City News Service

Peter Falk will posthumously receive the 2,503rd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Thursday, honoring a career best remembered for his portrayal of the disheveled Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective Columbo.

Falk's longtime friend, Joe Mantegna, will accept the star on his behalf. The star will be one away from Mantegna's. Mantegna appeared on stage with Falk in "Glengarry Glen Ross" and directed him in the 2000 movie adaptation of another David Mamet play, "Lakeboat."

Paul Reiser, who co-starred with Falk in the 2005 film "The Thing About My Folks," and Ed Begley, Jr., who appeared with Falk in the 1994 episode of "Columbo" titled "Undercover," will join Mantegna in speaking at the 11:30 a.m. ceremony at 6654 Hollywood Blvd.

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Falk was selected to receive a star in 1991 but never scheduled a ceremony, according to Ana Martinez, the Hollywood Walk of Fame's producer. He died on June, 23, 2011, at the age of 83.

Falk was born in New York City on Sept. 16, 1927, and raised in Ossining, N.Y. He made his first stage appearance when he was 12 in a production of "The Pirates of Penzance" at Camp High Point in upstate New York.

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After graduating from Ossining High School, Falk served as a cook in the merchant marine, then studied at Hamilton College, completing his work for a bachelor's degree in political science at the New School for Social Research in 1951. He received a master's degree in public administration from Syracuse University in 1953.

Falk unsuccessfully applied for a job with the CIA, then became a management analyst with the Connecticut State Budget Bureau in Hartford, where he acted with the Mark Twain Maskers and studied at the White Barn Theatre in Westport.

Falk made his professional debut in an off-Broadway production of Moliere's "Don Juan" at the Fourth Street Theatre on Jan. 3, 1956. The following season, he was in the Circle in the Square's revival of "The Iceman Cometh" with Jason Robards.

Falk received a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for his role as thug Abe "Kid Twist" Reles in the 1960 gangster film "Murder, Inc." He received a second best supporting actor nomination for his comic turn as a mobster in the 1961 film "Pocketful of Miracles."

Falk first played Columbo in the 1968 made-for-television movie "Prescription: Murder" after Bing Crosby turned down the role. He reprised the role three years later in a second made-for-television movie "Ransom For A Dead Man."

"Columbo" became part of the rotating elements of the "NBC Mystery Movie" in 1971, remaining part of it through 1977. "Columbo"continued through 2003 as a series of made-for-television movies, first airing on NBC, then ABC.

Falk received 10 Emmy nominations for the role, winning four times. He also received an Emmy in 1962 for an appearance on the NBC dramatic anthology "The Dick Powell Show."

Falk's other film credits included "The In-Laws," which he called his personal favorite; "The Princess Bride"; "A Woman Under the Influence"; "Husbands"; "Mikey and Nicky"; "Wings of Desire" and "Murder by Death."   


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