Peter Falk

Falk arrived as a character actor in the early 1960s, earning back-to-back Oscar nominations for Murder, Inc. and Pocketful of Miracles before taking home his first Emmy in 1962. He became the first actor nominated for an Academy Award and an Emmy in the same year, twice. In 1968 he debuted as Lieutenant Columbo in a television pilot, a role that became a proper series in 1971 and won him four Emmys and a Golden Globe across its long network run. Between Columbo's resurrections he worked steadily in film - It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Great Race, The Princess Bride, Wings of Desire - and formed a lasting creative bond with John Cassavetes, appearing in Husbands, A Woman Under the Influence, and Mikey and Nicky. The partnership gave him room to stretch beyond the detective's shuffle. TV Guide placed him twenty-first on its list of all-time greats; Hollywood gave him a star two years after his death in 2011.