As magnificent as Peter Falk was in the role of Lieutenant Columbo, the show’s enduring appeal owes just as much to the stellar contribution of that most revered group of guest stars: the Columbo killer.
The original 70s’ series provided us with some sizzling killers. The cherished and quintessential trio of Jack Cassidy, Robert Culp and Patrick McGoohan cast the longest shadows, but the quality of the supporting menagerie of murderers the show offered up is almost too good for words: William Shatner; Robert Vaughn; Ruth Gordon; Leonard Nimoy; John Cassavetes; Anne Baxter; Ross Martin; Ray Milland; Dick Van Dyke; Janet Leigh; Johnny Cash and so many more.
These were household names, and the contributions made by these star performers is a big reason why the lustre of the 70s series remains undimmed to this day. There are very few Columbo baddies that you’d willingly replace, that’s for sure. But had there been just a few more episodes, or another cheeky series snuck in to the 70s run, I do sometimes ponder who might have been drafted in to be pitted against the doughty Lieutenant.
“The contributions made by the cast of Columbo killers is a big reason why the lustre of the 70s series remains undimmed to this day.”
It’s been a debate I’ve had a few times with fellow fans on social media, and the list of names put forward has been varied and well reasoned. Some cracking suggestions include Roy Scheider, Bette Davis, Anthony Perkins, Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, Maggie Smith, William Windom, Max Von Sydow, Deforrest Kelly, Louise Fletcher, Roscoe Lee Browne, Robert Forster, Elliot Gould, Natalie Wood, James Earl Jones and dozens more.
It’s always a fun topic to discuss, so I’ve put forward a few candidates who I’d personally love to have seen play a 70s’ Columbo murderer. I’ve tried to ensure these are realistic choices, rather than just straight wishful thinking, and selected hypothetical guests who really might have appeared if circumstances were different. Read on!
Diana Rigg
Beautiful, smart and sexy, Diana Rigg could have played a femme fatale par excellence. Although known primarily at the time from her catsuit-clad role in The Avengers and as a Bond Girl in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Rigg was much more than just a pretty face.
As her career developed, she created multiple opportunities to show her range on stage and screen, and was rarely been found wanting. Not only all that, but her tigerish fights behind the scenes to raise her Avengers wage to an acceptable level would likely have earned her a nod of approval from Peter Falk, who was famously known to put the studio through hell when it came to renegotiating his annual deal. The two combined would have hit it off on screen beautifully.
James McEachin
If there’s one thing Columbo really lacked, it was a black actor playing a murderer. In hindsight it seems to be a major oversight and there’s no compelling argument for why it never happened. Sammy Davis Jnr was allegedly on the hit list for producers, but for whatever reason it didn’t come together. So why didn’t they turn to Jimmy McEachin? He twice appeared as in support roles in Columbo (in Etude in Black and Make Me a Perfect Murder), he was an established TV lead in his own right (albeit in the short-lived Levinson & Link created Tenafly) and he could have delivered both the intensity and, when required, the affability to play a very convincing Columbo killer. I really consider him one that got away.
Roger Moore
Some of Columbo’s greatest hits featured him squaring up to ultra-smooth criminals like Jack Cassidy, George Hamilton and Robert Vaughan. Roger Moore would have slipped into such a role as naturally as a certain spy slipping between silk sheets with a leading lady. His refined British accent and eyebrow-cocking expertise would have helped to differentiate him from the rest, too. Now you’ve thought about it, you’d have to agree that he’d be a great choice, wouldn’t you? He’d have needed to appear in the first couple of seasons, of course, before James Bond blasted him to mega stardom.
Gena Rowlands
It took me a while to buy into the idea of Gena as a Columbo killer – no doubt because I was prejudiced by the fragility she showed as wheelchair-bound Elizabeth Van Wick in Playback in 1975. In hindsight, that was doing her a great disservice because Rowlands was a wonderful actress with an amazing range. Equally importantly, she and Falk were a sensational partnership. Go and watch A Woman Under the Influence for proof of that.
She could have brought anything to the role of murderer: instability, vulnerability, sensitivity. But she could also be tough, as she showed in 1980’s Gloria. Any episode featuring her as a lead would have made for fascinating viewing.
Frank Sinatra
Ol’ Blue Eyes’ reputed association with the mob, not to mention his excellent relationship with Peter Falk (his co-star in 1964’s Robin and the Seven Hoods), would have made this mash-up solid gold. Swan Song gave Johnny Cash the chance to show his credentials as singer Tommy Brown in 1974, but I see Sinatra as playing a much harder character, possibly linked to the underworld, who could have believably portrayed a killer with no conscience, and whose belief in his power and connections would classically lull him into a false sense of security. In my mind, this would be one of the most popular of all episodes and known to just about every classic TV fan who ever drew breath.
And by the way, if you’ve never watched Peter Falk’s hilarious performance as Columbo in the 1977’s ‘Frank Sinatra Celebrity Roast’, please do so the second you’ve finished reading this article. View it here.
Pam Grier
Pam Grier is and has been ultra-cool for decades, but was at her sassy, sexy peak in the 70s and would have been an electric leading lady for Columbo.
Perhaps cast as a slightly less ferocious Foxy Brown-type who is seeking to make the world a better place and clear some trash off the streets, A Grier-infused Columbo could have been an exciting departure, dealing with big issues and presenting us with a sympathetic killer unlike any other in the series.
Anne Bancroft
A few years after her unforgettable turn as Mrs Robinson in The Graduate, Anne Bancroft was on a break from her film career and I can totally picture her as a Columbo killer in the early 1970s. She’d have brought a powerful sense of sultriness to the role – a step beyond that shown by Lee Grant in Ransom for a Dead Man – which would have been a very modern take for the series, and would no doubt have left the bashful Lieutenant hot and bothered and continually at a loss for words. And that could never be a bad thing.
Peter Cushing
A gaggle of horror legends could conceivably have been cast as Columbo killers (including Christopher Lee and Vincent Price), but Hammer’s finest, Peter Cushing, would have been my pick by a distance.
Playing a coldly calculating villain of high intellect, his clipped English delivery would have been an aural joy and he would have convincingly conveyed a chilling menace, despite advancing age and a slender build. Yes, a most delicious confrontation would have been on the cards, and for Cushing it would have been excellent practice for the role of the wicked Grand Moff Tarkin in Star Wars a few years later.
The big question, though: could viewers have handled the giddy thrill of Columbo essentially being pitted against Sherlock Holmes? Perhaps the 20th century wasn’t ready for that…
Orson Welles
Man mountain Welles could have easily steamrollered his way through an episode – and he’d have been one hell of a proposition for Columbo to handle. Welles’ resonant voice, full beard and massive physical stature – like Theo Bikel on growth enhancers – would have made him an awe-inspiring presence alongside the diminutive Lieutenant.
In my mind he’d play some sort of media mogul (a bigger, angrier, less vulnerable version of Death Lends a Hand‘s Arthur Kennicut, perhaps), whose wealth and political connections would make him almost untouchable, and whose bluster and bark would have had most mortals scurrying for cover. He’d rattle Columbo, perhaps as much as Mrs Peck. But Columbo would still take him down after a gargantuan mental tussle.
Billy Dee Williams
Before the world discovered Lando Calrissian, Billy Dee could have won hearts and minds as a cool black killer in the later 70s’ series of Columbo. A rising star in his own right at the time, he would have been absolute dynamite as a smooth, new money lothario, who would be on a charm offensive to all around him – even the Lieutenant, at first, who’d he’d be a supreme contrast to in every conceivable way.
He’d have to be a love rat, of course, and would doubtlessly have committed a despicable crime of passion, but the charisma, million-dollar smile and manicured good looks brought to the table by ‘Mr Colt 45’ must surely have brought joy to millions. He’d have won ‘Best Dressed Columbo Villain’ by a mile, too, if I’m any judge! I like this idea so much I’m slightly sad every day that it never happened. When time travel is invented, I’m hoping this is a wrong that will be put right.
Billy Dee Williams would have been dynamite as a smooth, new money lothario.
I would love to hear your thoughts on who you think would have been a great adversary for the Lieutenant in the 1970s. Please leave me a comment below with your suggestions! If this article is a hit, I might even do a follow-up about possible killers for a Columbo reboot, which would be an entirely different conversation.
As always, I really appreciate you taking the time to read this article. Have a great day…
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Along with Peter Falk’s friend Gena Rowlands, his friend Elaine May could have played a good semi-comical murderess.
Telly Savalas, Fred MacMurrary (yes, he was on My Three Sons, but played a killer in Double Indemnity), Anthony Perkins, Francois Truffaut, Malcolm McDowell, William Powell, Rock Hudson, William Devane, Lee Remick, Anthony Hopkins, Barbara Stanwyck, Oliver Reed, Bernard Hughes, Alida Valli, Julie Christie, Jean Stapleton, Adam West, Joel McCrea, James Mason, Peter Bogdanovich, Katherine Hepburn, Betty Davis, Gig Young, Lillian Gish, Doris Day, Peter Sellers, Karen Black, Catherine Deneuve, Burgess Meredith, Paul Sorvino, Stella Ritter, Norman Lloyd, Adolfo Celi, Sidney Poitier, Keye Luke, Gene Hackman, Max Von Sydow, Fritz Lang, Roscoe Lee Browne, Joseph Cotten, Abe Vigoda, Eartha Kitt, Buddy Ebsen, Raymond Burr, Yvonne Craig, Allen Napier, Ceasar Romero, Frank Gorshin, Eli Wallach, Liberace (Hell, almost anyone on the ’66 Batman TV series would have worked. They already had Roddy McDowall as a killer, and Julie Newmar as support), Bea Arthur, Melvin Douglas, William Holden, Sabastian Cabot, Darren McGavin, Dame Judith Anderson, Carolyn Jones, Gene Tierney, Maurice Evans. And my oddest choice of all: Groucho Marx.
Don Rickles!
Mia Farrow. Dyan Cannon. Leonardo DiCaprio. Kevin Spacey (eeek). Jodi Foster. Robin Williams. Will Smith. Jeff Bridges. Ossie Davis. John Amos. Winona Ryder. Nicole Kidman. Anjelica Huston. Demi Moore. Chris Rock. Laurence Fishburne. Blair Underwood. Calista Flockhart.
Carroll O’Connor as a killer, because he played arrogant bastards so well. And Tony Randall as the victim, because every character he ever played provided plenty of motive for killing.
Just back from looking at all the comments, and one name is conspicuous by its absence.
For either the ’70s or the ’90s.
ALAN ALDA.
Name another actor who personified smugness and self-righteousness as much as Alan Alda has over the years.
That’s what you need in a Columbo Killer: The need to be In The Right.
“The Tyrant always finds a pretext for his tyranny.”
Possible Alda Columbo villain:
AA is a District Attorney who’s looking for a headline case to grab headlines – and maybe ride the press to higher public office.
As part of his scheme, AA plans to involve some police detective with a high clearance rate, to put the set-up of a well-known public figure in place – unwittingly, of course; the cop in question has to have a reputation for near-infallibility.
Lt.Columbo would, of course, be known to DA AA, as would his MO; This in its turn would lead to the DA’s feeding the Pop clues to the Lt., but subtly – as if Columbo’s discovering them himself.
I’m not a mystery writer; you’d have to get an A-lister for the job – someone who’d be able to show that the adversaries here would be wary of each other.
The Big Finish – that might be in the courtroom … not necessarily during the trial of the framee, possibly just before – well, that would be for the writer to figure out.
Anyway, that’s one idea …
So, whaddya think?
I’m sorry if someone already posted on this but to view Lieutenant Columbo roasts Frank Sinatra, search this and it will come up in YouTube (year 1978), because above link doesn’t work. Thank you for including that-it was wonderful! What a treat!
Lauren Bacall and Angie Dickinson could be formidable foes.
I must say other comments have brought up some interesting choices; Dihann Caroll, Diana Ross, and Lena Horne. Even Redd Foxx.
Perhaps Della Reese could give Columbo a run for his money, and Teresa Graves. I’m toying with the concept of Gail Fisher as an antagonist.
I like the idea of Sammy Davis, Jr. and Billy Dee Williams pitted against Columbo. Sidney Poitier would be great but definitely couldn’t meet his asking price tag. Ivan Dixon could be a viable candidate.
Jack Lemmon attempting to scheme his way into fooling Columbo would be a twist. (The reunion of Professor Fate and his assistant sidekick, Maximilian.)
Of course some of these “nominees” mentioned in the opening dialog and comments would be well out of the budget of an episode.
I always thought Mary Tyler Moore would have been an excellent choice for playing a murderer on ‘Columbo’. We would eventually get to see how dark she could play in “Ordinary People” and “Stolen Babies”, but a turn with Peter Falk could have shown the casting people what she was capable of.
I love all the suggestions of actors of color here. However, I recall a kind of reverse racism in 1970’s American TV. Producers were so afraid of being charged with playing to stereotype that they almost never cast a black actor as a genuine “bad guy” (though unsavory black/white teams were not uncommon). I’d bet that many of these actors would have loved to play a meaty villain on a Columbo.