Columbo

:This article is on the television program Columbo. For information on the city, see Colombo.

Biography of Lt. Columbo

The following details of Lt. Columbo's life have been gleaned from statements the character has made or observations of the characters behavior in the show (it should be kept in mind that he may have been lying about any or all of these to establish a rapport with the person he was speaking to, though some facts, like his marriage, have enough other support to establish them as definitely factual):

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Columbo was born and raised in New York City in a neighborhood near Chinatown. The Columbo household included the future policeman's grandfather, parents, five brothers and a sister. His brother-in-law is a lawyer. His father wore glasses and did the cooking when his mother was in the hospital having another baby. His grandfather let him stomp the grapes when they made wine in the cellar. He is Italian on both sides.

Related Topics:
New York City - Chinatown - Lawyer

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Columbo's father, who never earned more than $5,000 a year, taught him how to play pool, an obsession that stuck with the future detective. His boyhood hero was Joe DiMaggio, and he also liked gangster pictures.

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Hardly a model child, Columbo broke street lamps, played pinball and ran with a crowd of boys that enjoyed a good prank. The trick of putting a potato in a car exhaust — which doesn't break anything, but the car won't start — served well on one of his cases. He became a cop in part to make up for these juvenile pranks.

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During high school, he dropped chemistry and took wood shop. While he dated a girl named Theresa in high school, he met his future wife. After serving in the Army during the Korean War, Columbo joined the New York police force and was assigned to the 12th precinct. He trained under Sergeant Gilhooley, a genial Irishman who tried to teach him the game of darts. He moved to Los Angeles in 1958.

Related Topics:
Korean War - 1958

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Columbo is compulsive about little details. Little things keep him awake at night and he likes to bounce ideas off his wife. The Columbos have an unknown number of children and a basset hound named Dog. Columbo doesn't carry a gun. He drives his trademark, dirty 1959 Peugeot 403 convertible. He is prone to airsickness and seasickness and he can't swim--though he's been known to row a rowboat. He is squeamish and doesn't like autopsies or even looking at photographs of 'messy' murders.

Related Topics:
1959 - Peugeot 403 - Convertible

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He is not good with numbers. He likes cooking, limericks, Westerns, Italian opera, Strauss waltzes, golf, classical music, bowling, and football on television. He also plays the tuba. He is a self-proclaimed expert at tuning in TV sets. In 1972, he made $11,000 a year. He is extremely stingy and for his 25th wedding anniversary, rather than buying her silver he considered taking his wife camping. His parents and his grandfather are dead. His favourite food is chili with crackers ('It's the crackers that make the dish', he comments in "Ransom for a Dead Man"), which he eats at a greasy spoon owned by Barney, with whom he sometimes chews over a case. Columbo also loves coffee and drinks it black. Columbo rarely drinks alcohol but has been known to drink the occasional beer or glass of wine, and isn't above sharing one last glass with someone he's about to put away. He also eats raisins and candy, which he has been known to carry in his pocket and offer round - especially at uncomfortable moments during one of his unassuming interrogations. He loves cigars (usually the cigarette-cigar kind), which he smokes regularly. He speaks Italian and a little Spanish. He is a whistler - in almost every episode you can hear him whistle the childrens song "This Old Man". If he doesn't whistle it, it appears somewhere else, such as in the underscore.

Related Topics:
1972 - Greasy spoon - This Old Man

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