Peter Falk lost an eye to cancer at age three. Instead of hiding it, he made it part of his presence. “His glass eye, which might have limited another performer, became a defining part of his face and, eventually, part of a legendary character.”

As Columbo, that slightly unfocused gaze helped create “the illusion of a harmless figure who shuffled into crime scenes with rumpled clothes and innocent questions, only to unsettle the guilty with relentless attention.” Viewers loved watching “a working class hero who used patience instead of arrogance and wit instead of intimidation.”

Off screen, things were rougher. He drank heavily, smoked constantly, and his intensity often hurt the people closest to him. “The man who embodied patience and humility in character did not always show those virtues at home.”

The same fire that made Columbo unforgettable also fueled self-centered behavior that broke marriages and friendships. “The very qualities that made him remarkable at his craft also caused pain.”
In the end, the full picture matters. “To remember Peter Falk fully means accepting both sides.” Celebrate the genius who turned a modest series into a global icon, and acknowledge the flawed man who left scars. Triumph and damage, brilliance and contradiction, all in one complicated life.