For those who may not have heard, Peter Falk died yesterday from complications of Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia.

As most of us are aware, he was one of the stars of the "biggie" in our world, "The Great Race". As Prof. Fate's assistant, he was hilarious and was very much in the middle of the pie fight.

He was also in the movie "All The Marbles", as the manager of a duo of female mud wrestlers. Can anyone else think of any other movies that he was in that had food fights or mud wrestling?

He had a long and storied career on both the big- and -small screen.

May he rest in peace.

Norman

RIP Peter.

RIP

its kind of funny that we recognize him his part in "The Great Race" while the rest of the net is giving him praise for "Columbo" and "The Princess Bride". Oh well, 83 years is a good run.

R.I.P
He should have won an oscar for his performance in the classic film, Corky Romano.

Thanks, Norman Mabeld, for the remind about "All The Marbles"!

What great memories of Max (Falk's character) calling out "Professor!" throughout "The Great Race".

"Push the button, Max!"

Heyyyyyyyyy, Professahhhhhhhh

RIP, Det. Columbo.

Am I a bad WAMmer for remembering Columbo before The Great Race?

"Just one more thing, sir..."

No. I was long familiar with The Great Race before I even watched a Columbo(a rerun), and his role as that rumpled detective totally eclipsed his movie appearance for me at least. Purchased all of the 70's seasons of Columbo on DVD and they still hold up. Strangely, the ones he did in the 90's seem way more dated.

Columbo was awesome. Never seen The Great Race (except for the pie fight scene).

Max is a legendary slapstick character....He and Professor Fate (Lemon) were perhaps the greatest slapstick duo since Laurel and Hardy...celluloid immortals, for sure

As for Columbo...the 1990's episodes were with different writers...makes all the difference in the world...also, during the 1970's, young, up and coming directors (like Spielberg) would often be asked to direct an episode of Columbo to prove their chops in the industry...

...I think that I saw the Great Race before Columbo (as most older amercians did)....but Columbo would become more recognizable a character (via mass media)....and I was definitely a Columbo fan throughout my teens....apparently also, Columbo is revered in France, where Falk spent a good deal of his time (where he also could get work in film after his long run as Columbo pigeon-holed him in the States)...see Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire to get a larger sense of Falk's self-image and career...

RIP

as wamajama says "..see Wim Wenders film Wings of Desire to get a larger sense of Falk's self-image and career... "

Wings of Desire is my favorite movie in the whole world, and Peter Falk was wonderful in it. RIP, Mr. Falk.

Mrs. Bigshipper

Hi mrs bigshipper. Didn't know you were a wings of desire fan. My goodness, you're full of surprises, aren't you!


SCGuy

I could watch Columbo marathons for days.

Wings of Desire even ties back into the WAM world. On the outtakes section of the DVD, there is a cake fight between three of the movie's main characters (Bruno Ganz, the lovely Solveig Dommartin, and the other male angel, tall and blonde, whose name I can't recall). Director Wim Wenders talks over the footage in a very deadpan voice with a thick German accent, saying "For over 20 years, I had wanted to film a pie fight." He calls it an alternate ending, but it is so drastically out of character for the film that he eventually cannot really maintain this pretense in his commentary, and instead ends up saying that it was a fun way to wrap up filming (it was apparently done on the very last night of shooting, right before the cast and crew's wrap-up party.)

That's like Blake Edwards saying he always wanted to film a pie fight. Except he actually did it, and an amazing one it was! (in The Great Race, for those who might not know).

BTW, the music behind the pie fight is called "The Pie In The Face Polka" and was written by Henry Mancini.

Norman

Makes me want to see it just to see Bruno Ganz in something other than a billion hilarious online parodies of "Downfall"!