The best actors in the Columbo series
by dylanmarlon | created - 08 Aug 2013 | updated - 08 Aug 2013 | Public
1. Peter Falk
Actor | Columbo
Peter Michael Falk was born on September 16, 1927, in New York City, New York. At the age of 3, his right eye was surgically removed due to cancer. He graduated from Ossining High School, where he was president of his class. His early career choices involved becoming a certified public accountant, ...
2. Robert Culp
Actor | I Spy
Tall, slim and exceedingly good-looking American leading man Robert Culp, a former cartoonist in his teen years, appeared off-Broadway in the 1950s before settling into polished, clean-cut film leads and "other man" supports a decade later. Hitting the popular TV boards in the hip, racially ...
3. George Hamilton
Actor | Zorro: The Gay Blade
Noted these days for his dashing, sporting, jet-setting playboy image and perpetually bronzed skin tones in commercials, film spoofs and reality shows, George Hamilton was, at the onset, a serious contender for dramatic film stardom. Born George Stevens Hamilton in Memphis, TN, on August 12, 1939, ...
4. Bruce Kirby
Actor | The Muppet Movie
One of those hard-working supporting actors whose face you know but whose name might not ring any bells. Italian-American Bruce Kirby (real name Bruno Giovanni Quidaciolu) was steadily employed--primarily on the small screen--to play a gallery of often likeable, mainly unimposing characters in a ...
5. Patrick McGoohan
Actor | The Prisoner
Born in America, and raised in Ireland and England, actor Patrick McGoohan rose to become the number-one British TV star in the 1950s to 1960s era. His parents moved to Ireland when he was very young and McGoohan acquired a neutral accent that sounds at home in British or American dialogue. He was ...
6. Rip Torn
Actor | Men in Black
Rip Torn was born Elmore Rual Torn Jr. on February 6, 1931 in Temple, Texas, the son of Thelma Mary (Spacek) and Elmore Rudolph Torn, who was an agriculturalist and economist, credited with popularizing the custom of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. "Rip" is a family name, taken by ...
7. Faye Dunaway
Actress | Bonnie and Clyde
An icy, elegant blonde with a knack for playing complex and strong-willed female leads, enormously popular actress Faye Dunaway starred in several films which defined what many would come to call Hollywood's "second Golden Age." During her tenure at the top of the box office, she was a more than ...
8. George Wendt
Actor | Cheers
George Robert Wendt III was born and raised in Chicago to Loretta Mary (Howard) and George Robert Wendt II, who was a realtor and navy officer. He attended a strict Jesuit prep school, Rockhurst College (Kansas City, Missouri). He later dropped out of Notre Dame University after a few uneventful ...
9. Barry Corbin
Actor | Tulsa King
Barry's full given name is Leonard Barrie Corbin, and he was born on October 16, 1940 in Lamesa, Texas, to Kilmer Blain Corbin, an attorney & TX State Senator, and Alma Corbin, an elementary school teacher. Barry and his wife Jo share a ranch in Fort Worth, Texas. He says when he isn't working, he ...
10. David Rasche
Actor | In the Loop
David Rasche was born on August 7, 1944 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He is an actor, known for In the Loop (2009), United 93 (2006) and Burn After Reading (2008). He has been married to Heather Rasche since 1979. They have three children.
11. Jack Cassidy
Actor | The Eiger Sanction
Actor. Jack Cassidy, by his own design, defied mere definition from the day he was born in Richmond Hills, New York in 1927 until his tragic death in 1976. An actor, singer, writer, designer - the consummate showman and irrefutable creative entity - his life never followed a simple path nor did it ...
12. Leonard Nimoy
Actor | Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Leonard Simon Nimoy was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dora (Spinner) and Max Nimoy, who owned a barbershop. His parents were Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Raised in a tenement and acting in community theaters since age eight, Nimoy did not make his Hollywood debut until he was 20, with a bit ...
13. Oskar Werner
Actor | Jules et Jim
Remote, somewhat morose and, as a result, intriguing, Viennese talent Oskar Werner was born in 1922, not far from the birthplace of "Waltz King" Johann Strauss, and christened Oskar Josef Bschließmayer. His parents divorced when he was fairly young.
While growing up, Oskar found performing in school...
14. Don Ameche
Actor | Cocoon
Don Ameche was a versatile and popular American film actor in the 1930s and '40s, usually as the dapper, mustached leading man. He was also popular as a radio master of ceremonies during this time. As his film popularity waned in the 1950s, he continued working in theater and some TV. His film ...
15. Robert Vaughn
Actor | The Magnificent Seven
Robert Francis Vaughn was born on November 22, 1932 at Charity Hospital in New York City, the son of show business parents, Marcella Frances (Gaudel) and Gerald Walter Vaughn. His father was a radio actor and his mother starred on stage. Robert came to the public's attention first with his ...
16. Janet Leigh
Actress | Psycho
Janet Leigh was the only child of a couple who often moved from town to town. Living in apartments, Janet was a bright child who skipped several grades and finished high school when she was 15. A lonely child, she would spend much of her time at movie theaters. She was a student, studying music and...
17. John Finnegan
Actor | An American Tail
John Finnegan, or sometimes known as J.P. Finnegan, is an American film actor, mostly known for his roles on the American crime fiction series, Columbo (1971), which aired regularly from 1971 to 1978. Another role included voicing the character, "Warren T. Rat", who was the main villain in the 1986 ...
18. Kim Hunter
Actress | A Streetcar Named Desire
Her father, Donald Cole, was a consulting engineer, and died in 1926 when Kim was only three years old. Her mother, Grace Lind, once performed as a concert pianist. She had one brother who was eight years older than she, and she was educated at Miami Beach High.
According to an in-depth article on ...
19. Roddy McDowall
Actor | Fright Night
Roddy McDowall was born in Herne Hill, London, England, to Winifriede Lucinda (Corcoran), an Irish-born aspiring actress, and Thomas Andrew McDowall, a merchant seaman. Roddy was enrolled in elocution courses at age five and by ten had appeared in his first film, Murder in the Family (1938), ...
20. Ida Lupino
Actress | High Sierra
Ida was born in London to a show business family. In 1932, her mother took Ida with her to an audition and Ida got the part her mother wanted. The picture was Her First Affaire (1932). Ida, a bleached blonde, went to Hollywood in 1934 playing small, insignificant parts. Peter Ibbetson (1935) was ...
21. Johnny Cash
Soundtrack | The Johnny Cash Show
Johnny Cash was born February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas, to Carrie Cash (Rivers) and Raymond Cash. He made his first single, "Hey Porter", for Sun Records in 1955. In 1958 he moved to Columbia Records. He had long periods of drug abuse during the 1960s, but later that decade he successfully ...
22. Martin Sheen
Actor | The Departed
Multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winner Martin Sheen is one of America's most celebrated, colorful, and accomplished actors. Moving flawlessly between artistic mediums, Sheen's acting range is striking.
Sheen was born Ramón Antonio Gerard Estevez in Dayton, Ohio, to Mary-Ann (Phelan), an Irish ...
23. Vincent Price
Actor | The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Actor, raconteur, art collector and connoisseur of haute cuisine are just some of the attributes associated with Vincent Price. He was born Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. in St. Louis, Missouri, to Marguerite Cobb "Daisy" (Wilcox) and Vincent Leonard Price, who was President of the National Candy ...
24. Rod Steiger
Actor | In the Heat of the Night
Rodney Stephen Steiger was born in Westhampton, New York, to Augusta Amelia (Driver) and Frederick Jacob Steiger, both vaudevillians. He was of German and Austrian ancestry. After his parents' divorce, Steiger was raised by his mother in Newark, New Jersey. He dropped out of Westside High school at...
25. Eddie Albert
Actor | Roman Holiday
A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Eddie Albert was a circus trapeze flier before becoming a stage and radio actor. He made his film debut in 1938 and has worked steadily since, often cast as the friendly, good-natured buddy of the hero but occasionally being cast as a villain; one of his ...
26. Ray Milland
Actor | The Lost Weekend
Ray Milland became one of Paramount's most bankable and durable stars, under contract from 1934 to 1948, yet little in his early life suggested a career as a motion picture actor.
Milland was born Alfred Reginald Jones in the Welsh town of Neath, Glamorgan, to Elizabeth Annie (Truscott) and Alfred ...
27. Stephen Caffrey
Actor | Tour of Duty
Stephen Caffrey has been a stage actor in New York, Los Angeles and across the country for over 30 years. On Film and Television he starred in and directed the series "Tour of Duty" for over 3 seasons on CBS. He received an Emmy nomination for his year on "All my Children" and has had leading roles...
28. Gary Hershberger
Actor | Twin Peaks: The Return
Gary Hershberger was born April 5, 1964 in Inglewood, California. He was raised in North Hollywood, California and then moved to small town San Marino with his mother, Jane, and his father Richard, a lawyer, and his older sister, Linda. Drawn to the creative arts from an early age, Gary fell in ...
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