This Guy Died This Year: Peter Falk

Depending on your age, Peter Falk is that guy from Columbo, that guy from Princess Bride, or that guy from that show your dad used to watch (which was Columbo). But all three of these suppose Falk to be an actor. In reality, acting was the career he landed in after failing as an academic and researcher—a failure that came, per his memoir Just One More Thing, due to his lack of punctuality rather than a lack of academic ability.

That career path rings true for our own personal fidelity, but it was ten years ago that Falk first entered the hearts of that final, youngest population. His role as Max in the Favreau & Vaughn's pseudo-Swingers vehicle Made kept a middling film from being completely "meh." Peter Falk calling Vaughn's character a cocksucker does not and will not ever get old.

Academia is, itself, a search for greater and more unique ways to call those who came before you cocksuckers. It's also a journey that upon which even the strongest researchers and thinkers find dead ends. (Falk appeared in Corky Romano the same year as Made.) The Columbo character was usually described as "rumpled." So, too, can be our lives, and our careers, and even with only one eye open that can sometimes be the only authentic way to exist.