Biography

His lifelong collaboration with Richard Levinson began with their writing sketches together at summer camp, then at the Univ. of Pennsylvania in their native Philadelphia.

Was nominated for Broadway's 1983 Tony Award as Best Book (Musical) with collaborator Richard Levinson for "Merlin."

Graduated with writing partner Richard Levinson from Cheltenham High School, Cheltenham, PA, and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Also draws cartoons, mostly for friends, though they have been exhibited.

Co-creator of Columbo and Murder, She Wrote.

[on if the Columbo character really has a first name]: No, he never had a first name. And I have to be honest with you, Dick (Levinson) and I didn't know what his first name was, either. We considered it. We had a pact with Peter, though, way back at the beginning, that we would never tell the audience his first name--we wanted to keep them intrigued.

Columbo is an obsessive character who's like Joe Everyman, except that he's got a brain like a computer, although he hides it. And that's the way he sucks these murderers in...He doesn't seem like the brightest guy, not the sharpest knife in the drawer; he's always talking about his wife and relatives. So the murderers give him leeway. But he's just conning them there before he goes in for the kill.

[on managing the 'Columbo' series] It's a very, very tough show to write....There are no car chases, there's no violence--it's just two guys (detective and killer) circling each other, or the cop and a woman circling each other, for two hours--or an hour and a half in the original.

[on offering Bing Crosby the 'Columbo' role]: We knew he was a very good actor. We even sent him the pilot script. And he returned it with a very nice letter, saying, 'Boys, I'm really out of television now. I do one or two specials for CBS every year, and I hear a weekly series is really a grind.' And it was good we didn't cast Crosby, because not that many years later he died on a golf course.

[on if the 'Columbo' character evolved going from Bert Freed to Peter Falk]: He didn't evolve. It's the same person all along....Peter added some quirks in the character. He was born to play that role. He doesn't care much about his clothes, just like Columbo. He wears the same thing most days--and that's Columbo too, the same green suit, the same raincoat.