SHORT TAKES : Falk Mixes Caution, Adventure
Though he’s terrified of taking risks and failing, actor Peter Falk says, a part of him has “always yearned for adventure and romance and spontaneity.”
He describes himself as being overly cautious and said in an interview to be published in Sunday’s Parade magazine that friends refer to him as “the 2,000-year-old man” because it takes him so long to make a decision.
Yet, he adds, he has an opposite side that craves excitement.
The 62-year-old actor said he first tried to find it by joining the merchant marine in 1945. “For 15 months I was, first, a cook, then demoted to messboy.”
He eventually got to visit Europe and visited Yugoslavia under then-dictator Tito’s program to introduce Western youths to his country, but it wasn’t really what he had in mind.
Falk went searching for adventure again after getting a degree in public administration in 1953 by applying for a job with the Central Intelligence Agency.
“I had this romantic vision of myself, sitting in a Paris cafe in a trench coat,” he told Parade. At least part of that dream became a reality in Falk’s memorable TV alter ego, detective Colombo, who is known for his rumpled rainwear.
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