Goodbye Columbo

I am saddened to learn that the great Peter Falk has died.  He was one of those stars the camera seemed to love.  Put him in any scene next to any accomplished actor - and you always went straight to Falk.  There was just something about his bumbling, sloppy, frumpy way that endeared him to millions.  Of course to most of a few generations, he is an will always be Columbo, walking out of that sunset with the eerie music for the TV mystery movie of the week.  He would wear his drooping overcoat, cigar in hand, and just when the bad guy thought he finally was about to leave, he would pause and then come back for one more 'Ahh, there's just one more thing.'  It was priceless.  And so was Mr. Falk.
I hated to learn of his own struggles with Alzheimer's, as that was the plague of my own Dad in his later years.  I know what that is, and what it does.  By the time it is over, you feel that the loved one has long since left.  But in his day, he was the consummate scene stealer.  It is as if no part he ever played didn't fit him.  From working with Blake Edwards, to being the kindly grandfather in The Princess Bride, he seemed to be just right.  The tributes in the article say it well.  Falk was, in a way, Columbo.  A short, physically less than stellar man with one eye and a speech impediment, and yet he moved mountains in his chosen craft. 

How inspiring.  Goodbye Peter Falk.  You will be missed.