{"product_id":"beyond-columbo-william-j-birnes-9781521881491","title":"Beyond Columbo: The Life and Times of Peter Falk","description":"We knew him as Lieutenant Columbo, showing up at a crime scene behind the wheel of an iconic Peugeot 403 convertible and wearing a rumpled trench coat, tie often at half mast from an open collar, and smoking a cigar. He was meticulous, though, in his search for clues, focusing on things that didn't add up and homing in on a person whom he suspected as he tightened the web around his prey until, in a final reveal, he got the suspect to cough up a confession.This was Peter Falk, who inhabited the role of Lieutenant Columbo after a successful career playing gangsters in feature films opposite the likes of Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Glen Ford. And the new biography of Peter Falk, *Beyond Columbo, * is an in-depth look at the actor's life, his place in history, and his artist's life.Authors Richard Lertzman and Bill Birnes (*Dr. Feelgood* and *The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney)* cover not just the details of Falk's life and the influences upon him, they talk about his range as a performer who could inhabit roles as tough as gangster Abe Reles in *Murder, Inc., * slapstick comedy in *It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World* and *The Great Race, * and as benevolent as the kindly grandfather in *Princess Bride.* The authors reveal that there was much more to the real-life Peter Falk than the characters he played. Falk tried to join the Marines, applied to be an agent for the CIA, sailed as a cook in the Merchant Marine, worked for Marshal Tito in Communist Yugoslavia, got himself arrested in Italy over a restaurant bill, and was followed around by Soviet intelligence agents.The authors delve into the basic psychological conflict that drove Falk from the time he grew up in a well-to-do merchant family in Ossining, New York, where his father wanted him to get a steady job at a steady income instead of \"painting his face\" and making a spectacle of himself. This drove Falk, listening to the inner voices of his parents to question himself often, even as he tried to live the life of a vagabond performer looking for the perfect role, the role he ultimately found in *Columbo.*The book includes in-depth and exclusive interview with many of Falk's co-stars, Joe Mantegna, Dabney Coleman, Paul Reiser, George Segal, Kevin Pollak, Dan Lauria, Steven Bochco, and Ed Begley, Jr., as well as from *Columbo's* first director, Steven Spielber\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e William J. Birnes, Richard A. Lertzman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1521881499\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781521881491\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/19\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 422\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.36lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.94d","brand":"William J. Birnes","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43986527387903,"sku":"9781521881491","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_ea5fab01-78ca-4526-90bb-a14da6bf1b0b.jpg?v=1683283871","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/beyond-columbo-william-j-birnes-9781521881491","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}