RIP: Peter Falk dies at 83, june 24 2011

RIP: Peter Falk dies at 83, june 24 2011 - Peter Falk, the gravel-voiced actor who has become an enduring icon representing television Lieutenant Columbo, the rumpled raincoat tough LAPD homicide detective who has always had "one" to ask a suspect, died Thursday. He was 83.

Falk, who says he suffered from dementia, died at home in Beverly Hills, according to a statement to a lawyer and friend of Larry Larson.

In a more than 50-year acting career that spanned Broadway, movies and television, Falk appeared in more than 50 feature films, including "A Woman Under the Influence," "Husbands," "Luv," "Mikey and Nicky," "The In-Laws," "Wings of Desire," "The Great Race," "The Cheap Detective," "Cookie" and "The Princess Bride."

"Husbands" (1970) and "A Woman Under the Influence" (1974), both of which were written and directed by Falk's close friend, John Cassavetes, provided Falk with two of his best-known dramatic film credits.

But it was his role as the blue-collar family man trying to deal with his mentally unstable wife (played by Gena Rowlands) in "A Woman Under the Influence" that he created what former Times film critic Charles Champlin called "one of the most complex and contradictory portraits in his career."

Early in his film career, Falk has received two Oscar nominations for best supporting actor - for playing a vicious murderer mafia "Murder, Inc." (1960) and his interpretation of the right of a man of gangster Frank Capra comedy-drama "Pocketful of Miracles" (1961).

Falk screen combination of hardness and softness encouraged Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper to another label to New Yorkers, "James Cagney or John Garfield -. A man to replace Irreplaceable" @hot zone