Offscreen Notes
Peter Falk: 1927-2011
The death of Peter Falk no doubt has touched countless people of different generations and of different ages, such was his unassuming ‘star’ personality. Falk was the archetypical character actor, who could easily slip into a secondary role and make it monumental. My father (born two years after Falk) rarely watched TV shows with any regularity, except for Columbo, which he loved. Watching the show with him I can tell that what attracted him to Falk was the way he would trap people into a false sense of security and sense of superiority by playing his character deceptively ‘dumb.’ The coy way he would fool people into giving away clues and evidence no doubt reminded my Italian father of a particular Italian character trait of the sneaky deceiver, il furbo. My own favorite Falk roles are his many gangster roles and his performances under Cassavetes. His small stature and ethnic look always reminded me of Edward G. Robinson, a great character actor of many gangster roles (who will forget his turn as Little Rico in Little Caesar) in the generation before Falk. And his searingly emotional performance in Woman Under the Influence remains one of my favorite working class performances ever. And he shone as the sympathetic (to angels) human in Wim Wenders’ last great film, Wings of Desire. Hopefully Falk has now joined the angels. (Donato Totaro)
