Columbo The character of Columbo was created by William Link, who said that Columbo was partially inspired by the Crime and Punishment character Porfiry Petrovich as well as G. K. Chestertons humble cleric-detective Father Brown. Other sources claim Columbos character is also influenced by Inspector Fichet from the 1955 French suspense-thriller Les Diaboliques. The character first appeared in a 1960 episode of the television-anthology series The Chevy Mystery Show, entitled Enough Rope. This was adapted by Levinson and Link from their short story May I Come In, which had been published as Dear Corpus Delicti in an issue of the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. This story did not include Columbo as a character. The first actor to portray Columbo, Bert Freed, was a stocky character actor with a thatch of grey hair. Freeds Columbo wore a rumpled suit and smoked a cigar, but he otherwise had few of the other now-familiar Columbo mannerisms. However, the character is still recognizably Columbo, and uses some of the same methods of misdirecting and distracting his suspects. During the course of the show, the increasingly frightened murderer brings pressure from the district attorneys office to have Columbo taken off the case, but the detective fights back with his own contacts. Although Freed received third billing, he wound up with almost as much screen time as the killer and appeared immediately after the first commercial. This teleplay is available for viewing in the archives of the Paley Center for Media in New York City and Los Angeles. Levinson and Link then adapted the TV drama into the stage play Prescription: Murder. This was first performed at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco on January 2, 1962, with character actor Thomas Mitchell in the role of Columbo. Mitchell was 70 years old at the time. The stage production starred Joseph Cotten as the murderer and Agnes Moorehead as the victim. Mitchell died of cancer while the play was touring in out-of-town tryouts; Columbo was his last role. This picture is from The Chevy Mystery Show, entitled Enough Rope.Dr. Fleming (left) examines evidence with Columbo (Bert Freed)
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 21:53:13 +0000
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