Peter Falk made the world fall in love with a rumpled detective. But his own life ended in chaos. Fame, fortune, and four Emmys couldn’t save him from the brutal
unraveling of his mind, or the bitter war inside his family. A daughter shut out. A wife accused. A funeral that sparked out …

He will always be Columbo to millions: the shambling genius with the glass eye, the raincoat, and the lethal question that broke the most arrogant criminals. Yet the man behind the legend was far more complicated. Peter Falk rose from childhood cancer and early rejection in Hollywood to become TV’s highest-paid star,but success didn’t bring peace. His heavy drinking, womanizing, and long absences strained his first marriage and scarred his daughters, especially Catherine, whose relationship with him collapsed after he wed actress Shera Danese.

In his final years, Alzheimer’s stole the very memories that made him beloved; by the end, he reportedly no longer remembered ever being Columbo. When he died in 2011, Catherine says she was barred from his bedside and even his funeral, learning of his death hours late. Fans remember the twinkle, the wit, the unshakeable moral compass. His family remembers a brilliant, damaged man they were never allowed to fully say goodbye to.