Born in New York City. His first foray into acting: filled in the role of detective in high school play when the original student-actor fell sick. Falk left college to serve as a cook in the Merchant Marines, then returned and received a degree in political science from NY's New School, then graduate degree in 1953 from Syracuse University. He applied to CIA, but was turned down. He then took a job in Hartford, CT, as an efficiency expert for the Budget Bureau of the State of Connecticut before deciding to become an actor. Five years after he started taking acting lessons from Eva Le Gallienne and Sanford Meisner, he earned first Oscar® nomination. It's reported that Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures and renowned for his boorishness and vulgarity, rejected Falk, declaring, "For the same money, I can get an actor with two eyes!" (Falk's right eye was surgically removed at the age of three, because of cancer.) Gifted as both a comic and dramatic player, and best known, from 1971 to 1977, as scrubby, deceptively bumbling Lieutenant Columbo on TV's "NBC Sunday Mystery Movie." Falk appeared in four films by his friend John Cassavetes in the 1970s and 80s (HUSBANDS, 1970; A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE, 1974; OPENING NIGHT, 1977; and BIG TROUBLE, 1986) and gave a memorable performance, as himself, in Wim Wenders's art-house success WINGS OF DESIRE (1988). In 1972, he won a Tony® for his performance in Neil Simon's The Prisoner of Second Avenue on Broadway. Oh! Just one more thing... Carroll & Graf published Falk's autobiography, Just One More Thing in 2006. Visit the Internet Movie Database for a listing of Falk's copious film and television credits.  Nominated for Actor 1960: MURDER, INC.  Nominated for Supporting Actor 1961: POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES 2 nominations