One of the great joys of watching Columbo – to this very day – is the magnificence of its star-studded casts.
Even some of the lesser episodes had the strength in depth of cast to make other shows green with envy. Think of Short Fuse, with Roddy McDowall headlining and bit-part roles for talents as extravagant as Ida Lupino, William Windom, Anne Francis and James Gregory – all well-known faces to millions at the time.
The lucky viewer at home could simply revel at spending time in the company of such luminaries. For the series’ producers, though, casting was one of the most arduous aspects of the job – and one which often went right down to the wire.
David Koenig, author of 2021 behind-the-scenes epic Shooting Columbo, sheds some light on what an exhaustive and, at times, fraught process it could be to cast Columbo – using Season 4’s Negative Reaction as a case in point…
THE MOST important factor to Columbo’s success was the casting of Peter Falk. Yet each episode’s murderer often received as much—if not more—air time than the cop. So frequently casting just the right actor in the role could mean the difference between satisfactory and sensational.
Over the years, there were a number of close calls. As detailed in my book Shooting Columbo, looking back at how the show was cast presents a delicious game of “What If?” Can you imagine Orson Welles as the Great Santini in Now You See Him? (The show couldn’t afford him.) Or Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in Forgotten Lady? Anthony Hopkins in The Last Salute to the Commodore? (They all declined.) Or what about Ed Asner as Colonel Rumford in By Dawn’s Early Light? (He said yes, but—after much drama—backed out.)
In fact, Team Columbo considered up to three dozen different actors for every role in every episode. For a typical 1970s Columbo, the casting started with the producer. Three to four weeks before the scheduled start of filming—about the time he hired his director—the producer would compile a list of actors he thought would be right for each part. He’d also send the script to several talent agencies, to get their suggestions. Executives from Universal Television and from NBC would also weigh in. And, finally, the producer would bounce his options off of the director and Peter Falk.
Casting just the right actor in the role could mean the difference between a satisfactory and a sensational episode.
Back in Season 1, Falk seemed only concerned with working in bit parts for his film buddies and regular stand-ins, Mike Lally and Dick Lance. But within a few years, as he realized how the reputation of the week’s guests influenced how the entire series—and he—was viewed, Falk began pushing for more prestigious co-stars.
Ultimately, though, the decision was the producer’s to make. According to Everett Chambers (producer, Seasons 1, 4-6), “I never got approval in casting from anyone, not Peter or the network—except for Lady in Waiting, (when) Link and Levinson cast the lead women and changed the set dressing while I was on location, and I quit. And on the mess with Elaine May (Old Fashioned Murder).”
Approval, no. But as the production notes for any episode demonstrate, suggestions—some quite adamant—yes. Let’s look back at one of the most contentious episodes to cast, Negative Reaction.
With the episode scheduled to begin shooting on June 7, 1974, producer Chambers hired his director, Alf Kjellin, in mid-May. Chambers then began scribbling on a yellow memo pad his ideas for each role. Usually 15 to 20 names would come to mind to play the villain. To play murderous photographer Paul Galesko, he jotted down 25, among them Alan Arkin, Orson Welles, Martin Balsam, John Cassavetes, Joel Gray, Tony Randall, James Mason, and Donald Pleasance. On his list, Chambers circled his eight favorites—Hal Holbrook, Patrick McGoohan, Tony Franciosa, Richard Benjamin, Louis Jordan, Robert Duvall, Arthur Hill, and Peter Sellers—to check on their availability and, once the list narrowed, to gauge their interest.
Among his 16 thoughts to play the victim, Frances Galesko, were Antoinette Bower, Jessica Walter, Vera Miles, and Rosemary Murphy (who’d just been bumped off by her husband two episodes earlier, in A Friend in Deed). To play ex-con patsy Alvin Deschler, Chambers wrote down 19 names, including Don Rickles and Bert Freed (the actor who first played Lieutenant Columbo 14 years prior on an installment of The Chevy Mystery Show). Chambers circled his favorite five of the possible Deschlers, including the future Sgt. Kramer, Bruce Kirby.
Continuing to brainstorm, Chambers jotted down eight women to consider as Mrs. Moyland the housekeeper, seven as Lorna the secretary (Joanna Cameron, Leslie Ann Warren), nine as Dolan the wino (such as Vito Scotti), four as police Sgt. Hoffman (such as Kirby), five as Sister Maria Anita (favoring Brett Somers), and so on.
Team Columbo considered up to three dozen different actors for every role in every episode.
On May 21, casting suggestions arrived from at least three talent agencies. Not surprisingly, many of their suggestions were their own clients. As Galesko, the agents had been instructed to look for a “smooth operator.” Contemporary-Korman Artists suggested Gig Young, Cameron Mitchell, John Colicos, Ron Moody, or Ray Milland. Agent Mary Oreck pushed for McGoohan or Bill Macy. And Claire Miller mentioned Richard Anderson, Arthur Hill, Ed Nelson, or Mitch Ryan.
For Frances, casting wanted someone “shrewish.” Among the agents’ ideas: Jessica Walter, Rosemary Murphy, Beverly Garland, and Gloria DeHaven. For Lorna, proposals included Sondra Locke and Sharon Gless. For Deschler: Abe Vigoda, Carmine Caridi, Simon Oakland. For Dolan: George Gobel, Henry Gibson, Henry Jones, Kenneth Tobey. One agent also suggested Joanne Worley as Sister Maria Anita, and Alan Abelew, Johnny Fiedler, or George Furth as driving instructor Mr. Weekley.
NBC was predominately concerned with the guest star, wanting it to be the most familiar face possible. The network submitted its own wish list: –
- Bill Bixby
- Richard Boone
- Lloyd Bridges
- James Caan
- Glenn Corbett
- Robert Culp
- Tony Curtis
- Sammy Davis Jr.
- Glenn Ford
- Jim Franciosa
- Ben Gazzara
- Michael Condon
- Jerry Lewis
- Jim Nabors
- David Niven
- Anthony Quinn
- George Segal
- William Shatner
- McLean Stevenson
- Robert Vaughan
- James Whitmore
- Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
- Hersehel Bernardi
Incorporating additional ideas from his bosses at Universal, Chambers had his secretary type up a formal master list of possibilities then began working through them, one by one.
New names added would include: as Galesko, Alec Guinness, David Niven, Christopher Plummer, E.G. Marshall, Fred Astaire, Hume Cronin, Roddy McDowall, Burgess Meredith, Peter Ustinov, James Coco, Tony Curtis, Oskar Werner, and Dick Van Dyke. As Lorna, Joan Van Ark, Donna Mills, and an up-and-comer named Farrah Fawcett. And as Weekley, Conrad Bain, Norman Fell, Joe Flynn, Bruce Kirby, Kenneth Mars, and Larry Storch.
As Chambers’ staff began reaching out to agents, they learned Peter Ustinov was not available to play Galesko. Everyone liked the idea of Cassavetes, except apparently Cassavetes. Franciosa, Gig Young, and—NBC’s top choice—Bill Bixby were all available, and had the support of everyone—just not the enthusiasm of Chambers. He kept looking.
Falk was all in on Peter Sellers, but the comedian wanted $360,000—18 times the most the show had ever paid for a guest star. The budget also disqualified Omar Shariff (who sought $100,000) and Glenn Ford ($50,000). The one name on the list Falk specifically did not want: Danny Kaye.
Falk, however, seemed more passionate about getting bit roles for his pals. He requested his stand-in Mike Lally play a bum, mumbling a few lines so he’d get bumped up from Screen Extras to Screen Actors Guild pay. Falk also wanted a part for his buddy’s son, Michael Lally Jr., who read for the role of the doctor, but instead was cast as the police department prop master in two scenes (“Just want the envelope?” and “Yes, I am, sir.”). Falk wanted a line for his other stand-in, Dick Lance. As in A Friend in Deed, Lance ended up as a policeman for one scene (the finale: “Yes, sir.”). Chambers also cast his and Falk’s mutual friend Fred Draper as the police lab man.
With just days left before filming was to begin, Chambers zeroed in on an easy-to-overlook name on his list: Dick Van Dyke. Though known as a light-hearted, comic actor, Van Dyke had recently earned rave reviews for playing an alcoholic in the intense TV drama The Morning After. The support was unanimous.
On June 4, Chambers and Kjellin interviewed nine actresses for the three lead female roles. (Interestingly, they tested no one for the male parts). Alice Backes and Fran Ryan tested to play the housekeeper; Joanna Cameron, Karen Lamm, Robin Milan, Kathy Quinlan, and Pamela Hensley to play the secretary; and Antoinette Bower and Nan Martin to play the wife. In all three cases, the first woman to read for each part got it. And with no time to spare, the episode was finally cast.
California-based David Koenig is the Editorial Director of 526 Media Group and the author of eight books, including the best-selling Mouse Tales: A Behind-the-Ears Look at Disneyland and last year’s Shooting Columbo. He has previously supplied an article about tracking down the Tricon Lady from Exercise in Fatality for this blog.
There you have it, folks, the inside line on the gargantuan effort it was to cast any episode of Columbo. I doff my cap to the likes of Everett Chambers, Dean Hargrove and Richard Alan Simmons, who contributed so much energy and time to ensure the Columbo viewing experience was as riveting as it could possibly be. The success of their endeavours is evident in the fact we are still talking about and appreciating the show decades after it first aired.
Read my article on the stars I wish had been cast as Columbo killers here.
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I’m as glad as anyone else that Larry Storch played Weekly, but George Furth is so easy to imagine too, since he has that great nervous way about him in so many comedies.
Sean Connery would’ve absolutely killed it in The Conspirators as Devlin and could’ve been the Lieutenant’s classiest and toughest foe. I found the episode sorta fun but somehow Revill is not convincing as anything other than oixtremely oirish, and the episode is kinda lacking to begin with. Sean would’ve made it many times better. In fact, Connery would be good opposite Falk in any episode, but could have made this episode a true classic and well deserved last episode for the classic run. Considering the crud Connery signed up for film-wise at this time, surprising his agent never got him a role on the best detective show ever. RIP, SC and PF.
Peter Falk’s specific refusal of Danny Kaye made me laugh. But do we know the reason behind it ? Was it just Falk’s professional opinion that Kaye would be miscast, or was there some antagonism between Falk and Kaye (rooted in Peter Falk’s experience in the Danny Kaye show) ?
It’s a mystery why Peter Falk didn’t want to consider Danny Kaye for a role in Columbo. We can only speculate. One explanation could be that Peter simply didn’t feel comfortable working with actors or actresses whom he had previously worked with in comedic roles, even if he personally liked them. That would rule out such performers as Alan Arkin, Jonathan Winters, Jack Lemmon, Elaine May, and Danny Kaye.
An exception would by Larry Storch, but he was cast in Columbo in a comedic role. Now, Peter Sellers also worked with Peter Falk in a comedy, but since Sellers excelled at playing incredibly unique and diverse characters, that might have made him a worthy exception in Peter’s mind. At any rate, here’s a comedy sketch with Peter Falk performing with Danny Kaye.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoRUsLRziRE
I first found this blog when I was searching the internet to see if Cameron Mitchell had ever played a Columbo villain. I’d seen a Mystery Science Theater 3000 where Cameron Mitchell is in the movie, and the heckle track keeps calling him a Columbo villain. He was in the last episode of Mrs Columbo, but that’s as close as he got- no idea what they were thinking of. Anyway, I’m glad they did it, otherwise I’d never have found this place.
70s Columbo cast movie stars, 90s Columbo cast TV actors.
Clearly, there’s overlap on the Venn Diagram of movie stars and TV actors. And obviously, there are exceptions like Faye Dunaway. But the exceptions prove the rule. Virtually every 70s Columbo ep had a deep bench of classic film faces, and virtually every 90s Columbo ep had a deep bench of soapers and whodats. Or Shera Danese.
The answer to a question nobody asked: Who is the only actor to play a primary villain on Columbo, Mission: Impossible, and Batman?
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Roddy McDowell (“Short Fuse”, “The Puppet”, Bookworm). And he was the most convincing as Bookworm (a severely underrated Bat-villain). But I digress.
Speaking of casting…the better the TV show or movie, the more glaring the goofs are. Snagging the great Vincent Price and then inexplicably casting him as a supporting-character foppish cosmetics exec was truly criminal.
In my view, the marquee names who appeared as supporting characters in Columbo in the 70’s speaks volumes about the high quality of the production. Julie Harris in “Any Old Port in a Storm.” Dean Jagger in “The Most Crucial Game.” Myrna Loy in “Etude in Black.” Celeste Holm in “Old Fashioned Murder.” Vincent Price in “Lovely But Lethal.” The list goes on. Criminal? Well maybe how Celeste was used.
I noticed Vera Miles as one of those mentioned (though never auditioned/approached) to play Frances Galesko. Had Ms. Miles, she, rather than Robert Vaughn, would have been the first Columbo actor to play murderer and then victim).
Antoinette Bower did an excellent job in the role (and was far more beautiful than they made her to be in the episode). The other tested actress, Nan Martin, always gave good performances, and I believe she would have in Negative Reaction (and could have been a more dramatic precursor to her as Mrs. Louder on the Drew Carey Show.
I would have cherished to see Hal Holbrook as a Columbo villain in maybe “Negative Reaction” or any other episode, because in my book Hal Holbrook highlights Levinson’s & Link’s 1979 crime drama “Murder by Natural Causes”, which almost feels like a 70th Columbo movie to me – only with no investigator in it, because the plot ceases to continue just before Columbo’s entrance might have occurred. Maybe this would have been the one case that Columbo could never have solved, because the murder was just too perfect to crack.
Man, it’s weird seeing that Dick Van Dyke wasn’t initially one of the first 20 or so choices to play the main heel. It’s also interesting seeing Peter Falk wanting all of his mates and stand ins to get extra money, that seems like the type of thing that a guy like Keanu Reeves would do.
One last thing on episode Negative Reaction…I doubt if Dick Van Dyke would have been convincing without the beard add on. (Was it his idea or the producer?) I’m convinced this is one episode where a change in appearance was a necessity. His usual clean shaven “aw shucks” persona wouldn’t have cut it. When you watch him in this story you really do forget it’s Van Dyke. The beard makes him look fierce and distinguished…Of course, these days there’s nothing distinguished about a beard since almost every man and his brother in-law is sporting one, regardless if it looks good or not.
This is outstanding work.
When you saw Van Dyke as a killer judge in the first regular episode of Matlock, you knew Dean Hargrove suggested it directly.
Thank you so much, David Koenig!
It was perfect casting! But I would have loved Sammy Davis jr. in an episode as a villain
What happened with Elaine May?
She became involved in remotely directing ‘Old Fashioned Murder’ at Peter Falk’s request, leading to major rewrites of the script, and huge budget and time overruns. This was done behind Everett Chambers’ back (he was producer at the time), and he left the show following the episode’s completion.
I like Negative Reaction in part because I enjoy the change of pace of watching normally goofy Dick Van Dyck doing a credible job of being despicable. It makes his arrogant ‘gotcha’ scene, so beautifully underplayed by Colombo, even more of a triumph.
I think Van Dyke was marvellous in the role. Interesting to see from this article that despite being on the long list of actors for the role from an early stage, he wasn’t cast until the last moment.
I think Gig Young would have been a decent choice for playing Paul Galesko but it’s hard to imagine anyone doing a better job of it than Dick Van Dyke; it was a risky choice but one that paid off beautifully. As far as Franciosa and Bixby- i think they could have been good villains but I don’t see either of them as Galesko, especially Boy next door Bixby.
And Tony Randall? Why? Because his Felix on “The Odd Couple” was a photographer?
Hard to imagine Peter Sellers pulling off a role as a “Columbo” villain. He was talented but too eccentric.
David’s book detailed Falk’s efforts to cast Orson Welles in “Now You See Him,” and I get the magician angle — but really? How big a cube could have fit in that water tank? Not to mention the strain on the crane, the thought of Welles dashing down a ladder, or his trying to pass unnoticed through a crowded kitchen.
Then again, casting Welles in “How to Dial a Murder” might have been fun. Who better to intone: “Rosebud”?
Santini’s act would have needed a different grand finale, and the murder a different method, were he played by Welles. But Welles was such a talented magician and so much inclined to offer help rewriting scripts that I don’t doubt he could have solved those problems for them.
Also, perfectly suited as Jack Cassidy was to be a Columbo villain, he was always unmistakably an American of precisely his own age. Not only couldn’t he do accents, as he makes painfully clear in that scene in the restaurant, but his way of moving and posture when holding still are instantly recognizable as mid-century USA. So while he was only a couple of years too young to have been a sergeant in the SS, the contrast between him and Nehemiah Persoff, who was the right age and background to be a Holocaust survivor, is just glaring.
Welles, on the other hand, had worked extensively overseas, was fairly good at accents, and had famously made his first hit in the theater when he was cast as a man in his fifties while he was in fact sixteen years old. He’d even played an absolutely convincing fugitive Nazi war criminal in THE STRANGER. So I wish they had found a way to hire Welles.
As admirable as the work of Orson Welles is, including his crime films (e.g., “Touch of Evil”; “The Third Man”; “The Stranger”; “The Lady from Shanghai”), he wasn’t a mystery writer of the Columbo variety. I fear that a Welles rewrite of Michael Sloan’s script would have produced a McGoohan-like horror.
Oh, I can’t agree with you- look at Man in the Shadow, a 1957 crime drama set in the contemporary West. Welles rewrote the script pretty thoroughly, and it is a fine mystery story.
I did. Nothing in it resembled a Columbo other than that you know who’s guilty from the beginning. There are no subtle clues, no deductions. A blood stain in the tool room (that is never analyzed) is as close as you get, but that leads nowhere. What convinces the town that the sheriff is right is the murder of the witness and the sheriff’s courage, not any piece of evidence. And if Welles rewrote any of the script (as is rumored), he only rewrote his own dialogue. The rest of the script is pretty awful.
Wow. Thanks David! Just reading about it is kind of exhausting, I can’t imagine how much work it must have been to complete the cast… I think Dick van Dycke is terrific in Negative Reaction, by the way, but to have seen David Niven as a Columbo villain… that must have been a rare treat!
Once again David, another fascinating behind-the-curtain look at the care that went into Classic Columbo. The casting efforts, for all roles, clearly distinguishes the 70s run from the 90s eps. It’s also part of the “connective tissue” of elements – direction, music score, locations, costuming, camerawork, editing, and the overall ability to strike the right balance of serious crime-solving, characterization, and humor – that elevate even the 70s duds to Rewatchable status. For the 90s episodes, it was one-and-done IMHO, even if the script was passable.
David, I’m curious about how much of the guest star wish lists were really keyed into the characterization of the villain-of-the-week, and how often they were simply generic requests throughout the seasonal run of episodes. For example, there was an obvious appeal to casting Fred and Ginger specifically in “Forgotten Lady”, but Tony Curtis, let’s say, could have filled any number of villain parts and been a multiple-ask star. An episode like “Exercise in Fatality” obviously needed someone fit for the role, so Orson Welles wouldn’t be on speed dial for that one.
Sammy Davis Jr would have been outstanding as a villain. Was there ever consideration of any other black actors?
Glenn, I think it’s both. The producer (at least during the 1970s run) would come up with 20-30 names to make sure someone he approached would be available and interested, so the first ones that came to mind were always good matches, but the list got a little spottier as it continued. And a lot of the names kept popping up almost every week. Everett Chambers wanted to cast Patrick McGoohan literally for years before it finally happened. I know I saw the occasional black actor mentioned as lead villain (more commonly in a supporting role), but infrequently.
There never was a black villain in “Columbo”.
Correct. I’m referring to “saw” on potential cast list
Amelie Hastie, Professor of English at Amherst College is a “Columbo” scholar, and as an Emmy Television Academy Foundation Faculty Fellow, she wrote their site’s appreciation of Columbo co-creator William Link. In a virtual chat following a UCLA Archives screening of “Enough Rope”, she noted, per her discussions with Link, that it was a conscious decision for “Columbo” not to have black villains. “They [Levinson & Link] felt that television was too replete with representations of African-Americans as criminals. They didn’t want to suggest that there were not rich black people in Beverly Hills, but they wanted to disentangle African-Americans from violence on television (28:09,
Later in the same video, she answers a question from some guy named “Glenn” about 90s “Columbo”, but that’s another story).
In 1973, L&L created the show “Tenafly” for the “NBC Mystery” wheel, starring black actor James McEachin, who had appeared as a supporting “Columbo” actor. The program debuted exactly one day after the TV version of “Shaft”, making both series the first dramatic shows starring an African-American protagonist.
But Sammy Davis Jr still would have made a great villain.
The screenshot (above) of the man dialing the phone? None other than Bert Freed.
[Apologies if this shows up twice. It’s difficult to predict if a comment will get accepted if a URL is in the body of the writing].
Amelie Hastie, Professor of English at Amherst College is a “Columbo” scholar, and as an Emmy Television Academy Foundation Faculty Fellow, she wrote their site’s appreciation of Columbo co-creator William Link. In a virtual chat following a UCLA Archives screening of “Enough Rope”, she noted, per her discussions with Link, that “Columbo” was disinclined to have black villains. “They [Levinson & Link] felt that television was too replete with representations of African-Americans as criminals. They didn’t want to suggest that there were not rich black people in Beverly Hills, but they wanted to disentangle African-Americans from violence on television.” (28:09,
Later in the same video, she answers a question from some guy named “Glenn” about 90s “Columbo”, but that’s another story).
In 1973, L&L created the show “Tenafly” for the “NBC Mystery” wheel, starring black actor James McEachin, who had appeared as a supporting “Columbo” actor. The program debuted exactly one day after the TV version of “Shaft”, making both series the first dramatic shows starring an African-American protagonist.
But Sammy Davis Jr still would have made a great villain.
I should clarify that in 1965, Bill Cosby was a co-star of “I Spy”, with our old friend Robert Culp. McEachin and Richard Roundtree were the first black dramatic headliners, but Cosby’s achievement usually gets all the kudos..
Glenn, do you know whatever happened to Professor Hastie’s forthcoming book, “Columbo: Make Me a Perfect Murder”? It was supposed to be published by Duke University Press.
‘Tis a mystery, Rich. The book’s been in the wind for quite awhile. Because Amherst College is coincidently fairly close to me, I was fortunate enough to establish friendly email contact with her, and the last word on her work came in May 2021, when she told me that it was in the midst of final revisions before copy-editing stage. That was my last time in touch. I wonder if the recent proliferation of “Columbo” books has stolen some of her thunder, but her association with William Link gives her project an angle that other works might not have.
I think “Jim Franciosa” should be Anthony Franciosa or Jim Franciscus.
Good catch, Rob! That’s my mistake misreading NBC’s hand-written memo. Franciscus it is!
And by the way …
…. who the hell is Michael Condon?