‘Columbo’ Aired Its Last Mystery 20 Years Ago: 13 Celebs Who Guest-Starred on the Series
Not many TV actors get to play a character for 35 years as Peter Falk did in Columbo, a crime drama in which he played the titular detective, never far away from his wrinkled raincoat or his Peugeot 403 car.
NBC aired the first of two Columbo pilots in 1968, then incorporated the show into its NBC Mystery Movie anthology between 1971 and 1978. Then, starting in 1989, ABC revived Columbo for two more seasons and more than a dozen TV specials. The last of those specials aired 20 years ago, on January 30, 2003.
Sadly, Falk died in 2011 before Universal Television could find a buyer for the planned 70th Columbo installment — fittingly titled “Columbo’s Last Case” — so we’ll never again hear the New York-born actor say, “Just one more thing…”
During the Columbo cases that made it to air, however, Falk shared the screen with many stars from stage and screen, including the big names below.