Hungarian roots: Peter Falk, world-famous American actor, known as Lieutenant Columbo

In our weekly series we write about celebrities – artists, actors, musicians, athletes and scientists – who have Hungarian roots, but who few would consider “Hungarians par excellence”. In many cases even those concerned know/knew very little about their Hungarian roots, while others are/were proud of their “Magyar” origins, even though they cannot speak the language of their parents or grandparents. Our twentieth goal is:

Peter Falk, American actor, famous for his portrayal of detective Columbo in the legendary TV series

Peter Falk was born on September 16, 1927, in New York City. His parents were American accountants of Eastern European Jewish descent, a family history Peter Falk knew intimately. While Peter’s paternal grandparents emigrated to the United States from Tsarist Russia, his maternal grandmother was born in Habsburg-ruled Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic). Peter Falk also has Hungarian roots, as his maternal grandfather, Peter Hochhauser, was born in Budapest in 1874. According to an urban legend, Peter Falk’s great-grandfather was Miksa Falk (1828-1908), a prominent 19th-century Hungarian politician and writer. However, aside from their identical surnames, Hungarian genealogists have found no evidence to support this claim. Although Peter Falk was always very popular in Hungary, a statue of him was even erected on Falk-Miksa Street in Budapest’s 5th district.

Peter Falk’s acting career began relatively late. In 1956, at the age of 29, Falk left his job at the Budget Bureau in New York and became an actor, moving from one off-Broadway theater to another. Although Falk was successful on the stage, a theatrical agent advised him not to expect much work in the movies, as he had had his right eye removed when he was three years old and had a malignant tumor. In 1960, Falk left New York and moved to Hollywood, where he appeared in numerous films, including The Princess Bride, The Great Race, A World Gone Wrong, A Woman Under the Influence, And Murder by deathas well as numerous guest roles on television. He was nominated twice for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe Award once.

However, as the inimitable Lt. Columbo, the actor began to become a serious collector of Emmy statuettes, collecting a total of four for the lieutenant. What began as a television movie in 1968, Recipe: murderAnother followed in 1971, Ransom for a dead man ManThis resulted in a series of three alternating 90-minute shows, The NBC Mystery Wheelone of them was called Columbo. Columbo quickly climbed into the top 5 of the Nielson ratings. Although the series ended in 1977, they were restarted in 1988 in the format of 2-hour TV movies and continued until 2003. Columbo, “everyone’s favorite rumpled TV detective,” as historian David Fantle wrote, was a shabby and seemingly absent-minded police detective lieutenant who drove murder suspects crazy with his endless and annoying trick questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hxXjX57zgg

Sources: peterfalk.com, imdb.com, Wikipedia

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Previously at Hungarian Roots:

1. Tim Howard, goalkeeper of the English club Everton and the US national team

2. Rachel Weisz, English film and theater actress and former model

3. Alanis Morissette, Canadian alternative rock singer, songwriter and actress

4. Gene Simmons, musician, songwriter, guitarist and co-lead singer of the rock band KISS

5. Béla Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor, famous for his portrayal of Count Dracula in 1931

6. Kesha, American singer, songwriter and rapper

7. Louis CK, world-famous US comedian

8. Adrien Brody, Oscar-winning American actor

9. Joaquin Phoenix, Grammy and Golden Globe award-winning US actor

10. Don Shula, legendary American football coach

11. Drew Barrymore, American actress, model and producer

12. Paul Simon, American songwriter, singer and guitarist

13. Uri Geller, Israeli illusionist and self-proclaimed “clairvoyant”

14. and 15. Goldie Hawn and Kate Hudson, American actresses

16. Hungarian roots: Andy Vajna, Hungarian-American film producer of the “Terminator” series

17. Joe Eszterhas, top Hollywood screenwriter

18. Edward Teller, “Father of the Hydrogen Bomb”

19. Harry Houdini, Hungarian-American magician, illusionist, escape artist and stuntman