Peter Falk: Inside The Actors Studio (1999)

tonight's guests received Academy Award nominations for two of the first movies in which he appeared murder incorporated and pocketful of miracles since then he has appeared on the large and small screen 119 times in a gallery of beguiling portraits his association with John Cassavetes in films like husbands and a woman under the influence has molded a generation of independent filmmakers equally at home in comedy and drama theater film and television he is one of those rare actors who has been able to turn a fictional creation into an international icon the wrath the raincoat the stubby stogie the halting apology and the penetrating question have earned him four Emmy Awards as Columbo the Actors Studio is honored to welcome to our stage the fascinating lives of Peter Falk [Music] thank you you're one of our rare guests a native New Yorker I know you were born in New York but you were raised north of here where were you raised Peter I was raised in Ossining Ahsan he's about 30 miles up the Hudson and what did your parents do my father had a dry goods store and my mother worked in that bright good store were you a close family was it a conventional family was it I like my father very much yes and my mother I think was an unusual woman an extraordinary woman how come she was unusual she used to go to watch the rehearsals at the Metropolitan Opera in the afternoon and then she would go at night and she would compare their performances she was devoted to devoted opera and she had great taste in things that my father never understood no I know that at 3 there was an event in your life that would have had a profound effect on anyone talked about in the past that was fun well they took out my eye apparently I was going to she sent me some school and the teacher reported that he seems to be cocking his head to one side and my mother was really very very good about things like that I mean she moved fast and it turned out that there was a cancer in that eye and they put me in the hospital fast and they took it out and after that was it a difficult thing to adjust to or did it being young and did it just go quickly be will you suddenly possessed that part of your life and it didn't matter well of course naturally you're sensitive from well Wow I remember standing in front of a window and looking at a black patch my mother said he did do you like this one any better I didn't make my stiffest aneema so I furrow I guess until I was six or seven years old you were sensitive and you dreaded that moment you know what other kids would what's the mine when you arrive hey brother come in cuz who's I move but after a while I want you you know I want you to start knocking around with you know playing sports and you're in the locker room with the guys then they make fun of it and take to it quite openly you know what do you see when you look back at Ossining was it a good time you're like oh I think that my I school years a problem believe or that couldn't be any happier I had a wonderful time guys we have wonderful wonderful time in high school when you were a straight-a student I know that you were president your class you had three letters and sports well I was a half athlete believe me I'd say that I well I wanted to do was get a letter but I wasn't much of an athlete to be truthful with it wasn't it the fact that you were president that led to your making your very first stage appearance in the school yes what happened was I didn't even know they were going they were doing the play but one of the actors got sick a couple nights before the play was going to open and they came to me there's the class president and said you have to help us out step in and play the part and I did and they believe it or not the part was of a detective who comes in in the third [Laughter] and he solved the crime where did you go to college first oh the first time I went to Hamilton College but there were no women there right it was up there about a month and a half and I said the hell with this and I join me together I joined the Merchant Marine where'd you go I the first trip first trip we went to France and we picked up some soldiers that had fought evening this in the in the war I was a 1/3 cook on that on that I have a specialty my specialty was pork chops and that's why I cook and now we come to a moment that's very very important to us here on this stage you elected to go to another distinguished University what is it called and that distinguished University was called the New School for Social Research now this room must have been here then and looked just about like this yes about the way it does now and this is the first time I've been back oh I don't know 50 years whatever help is it really long time this is the University and this is the stage where or would miss Cotter we've been rescued with 400 other scholars and artists from Hitler and Mussolini by the new school was here did you ever encounter wind biscotti I did James what happened was I wasn't majoring in I was political science literature but I saw her in the catalog that you were able to get credit for your degree by being in a play and I thought oh that be a wonderful way to get credits and I honestly don't remember who I convinced to let me read I don't think it was pescado him snow I think was somebody else and the play was the time Saroyan to tie me alive and the part of Jones the lead and I got that part and after the play was over Piscotty this was pescado he offered me a scholarship and I I declined now how much of my opinion was based on a fear of failure and how much of my opinion was based on a fear of starvation when you graduated from the new school you departed almost immediately did you not for Europe the next day I had a girl when I she was over there and that's why I left so quickly to get back to her and we were there in Paris Oh couple weeks when Tito broke with the common floor and that was the first in the iron curtain so we decided to go there and we got there pretty quick we said that we were writing an article for youth magazine didn't make any difference they would have taken us anyhow what do you the Syracuse University for your master's degree well I thought it was about time I had a goal I said oh they have this program up at Syracuse University and this program was specifically designed to train young people to go to Washington and work even the budget Bureau or the Department of Defense or Agriculture something like that so that's where I was didn't you have some idea that you might become a spy when I graduated I I was I wasn't thrilled with being a public administrator somehow the only thing that I knew I did not want to go nine-to-five that was the only thing I really knew so I decided well I'll be a spy [Laughter] so I went to the CIA and I remember that guy when he was looking over my leg my resume he started to chuckle he says I I see here that you were in the Marine cooks and Stuart's Union so he tells me this was a communist dominated Union I really didn't I never met anybody and he tells me he says never in the history of the CIA have we had an applicant who has helped build feet or build a railroad [Laughter] and then he said to top it off the fact that you went to a new school for social not only for working in the CIA son you can't get a job in Washington okay so no CIA no espionage and you wound up in Hartford what you do up there yeah I got a job finally got a job in public administration and Hartford I was a an efficiency expert I work for the Department of the budget tell me how the great evil of galleon came into your life evil the galleon was giving a course in Shakespeare for professional actors and I lied and applied and said I was a professional actor I had a drive from Hartford down to where those the what sport the William Westbourne yeah right I'm down the West Point and I was usually late because I had that long drive and one day the guy you know she shot at me and she said why are you always late and I said well I have to drive now from Hartford well what do you do there they don't theater they're having make a living and I said I'm not an actor and she said well you should be now sit down well I sat down but I didn't stay I stayed about 20 minutes I got up and got in my car and drove home headed right for the office walked into the bosses and I quit and that turned me around [Music] and I needed somebody like her to tell me I should have been an actor I didn't believe anybody else but I really her I know that a Columbia Pictures Scout saw you on TV and declared you the new John Garfield and he arranged a meeting with a legendary Hollywood tycoon how did that meeting go and who loved the tycoon oh the tycoon was Harry Cohn he said to me son I'm concerned with your the presidency and I don't know what that was talking about and he was trying to be delicate and I still didn't know I still didn't know one finally just came out and said oh I'm concerned about your eye and then he put an end to the conversation by saying Peter for the same price I'll get an actor with two eyes now the 60s began for Peter with a picture called Murder Inc you played who in that AV rellis he was a B kid twist around say be rebels he was a it was a killer there was a gang of well this was a Jewish mom and they were they were specialists they were hired when somebody had to be killed what's most noteworthy of course is that for playing a Braille Asst in this low budget movie Peter got an Academy Award nomination five years after going up to Hartford to quit his job on the strength of evil against endorsement one year after your first Academy Award nomination you received a second Academy Award nomination for pocketful of miracles now this was the great Frank Capra's last film you have said on one occasion or another that he saved you in a scene is it a little comedy scene between me and an actor named Edward Everett Horton and I was playing this uncouth hood and I was annoyed at him and my frustration mounted because I had difficulty putting on my coat I could get my arm and the sleeve was inside out whatever the hell it was and and we did the scene a couple of times and it was no good and Frank said why don't we get a cup of coffee and then we went back and we did the scene again and the same worked like a charm well it turns out that during that coffee break what Frank Capra did was he tied up the lining and those sleeves and when the director does that for you I can't tell you how grateful you are how what a means to you not to have to fake that moment this is what Frank Capra said in his autobiography about Peter Falk Peter Falk was my joy my anchor to reality introducing that remarkable talent to the techniques of comedy made me forget pains tired blood and maniacal hankerings to murder Glenn Ford he concludes by saying thank you Peter Falk now with more pleasure than I can express we come to Colombo [Music] it so happens that my wife Kara KY is the number one Columbo fan in the world and I have asked her repeatedly and you're gonna help me now I'm sure Peter I have said to Quetta Kai what is Columbus first name and her reply is lieutenant and then I asked her what is his wife's name and she says mrs. Columbo Peter at last what is Columbus first name it's something I like about this character and that's the fact that he's embarrassed by his first name I like that I don't know what it is but it embarrasses him and he says only my wife uses it they never tell anybody else so you guess what it is I don't know and what is his wife's name well I prefer to call it missus come on now clearly a decision was made very early on to guard Columbus privacy it is one of the most brilliant strokes of this brilliant series we know very little about him does he still drive that too Joe oh yeah we know that he has children but we don't know how many we know that he like his favorite song is their soul man he played one it's like he played knick-knack on my thumb no William link has made a very interesting suggestion he has said that it is possible memories while the creators of the show that there is no mrs. Columbo and that she is utilized and created by him in order to make a point I disagree I disagree I think he does have a wife but I'm not sure how many relatives yes the reason I say that about the relatives is that the way the relatives came about is that it's very important that Colombo never be a show-off is he's got a big brain but he should never wear it on his sleeves and it's very important that he appear harmless to the adversary one of the easy ways to do that would he would start out by saying you know my nephew oh this kid is such an egghead you know what he's he knows about giant snails I didn't even know giant snails existed well the other day he was here and he was talking blah blah blah and before you know it I didn't find out about the clue the nephew did and that's the way you would deliver it and I would do that in most of those scenes but I would forget what I said the last time whether it was a nephew could have been a brother or a sister so by this accumulated an army of relatives but that's the reason all of those relatives are there how did the raincode originate I thought that I had read in the script that he was wearing a raincoat Lincoln Levinson they claimed that it it never said a raincoat that it was a top coat but that's my memory and I knew of a raincoat that I wanted to wear and I was mine I liked it I felt comfortable in it and I also had a pair of shoes that I wanted to wear because they were brown and they were they had a high top on I'm gonna look like something that an immigrant from from Italy would wear so now we're into brown with our brown shoes we've got a brown raincoat I had a suit there suit was alright I said baby could you die that brown so they died that brown and the shirt we died that base we had a symphony of brown I I felt that drag would be would be good for him and there was one concession to color and that was that drab green pie first as the raincoat been retired well people say that it's in the Smithsonian Institute and if my second floor closet is the Smithsonian Institute know how much you've contributed to the writing of that show Colombo has a a shoe fetish he frequently asks these rich folks how much did those shoes cost right that's my contribution to be able to lean over to the defense attorney and say confidentially what would you pay for those shoes that just tickles you to do that the most famous Colombo trademark of course is the false exit the return and the lethal one more thing was that there from the beginning was it in the original yes that was in the original and the trick then was once it was in the original was in the sixty succeeding shows to find ways to do it with some originality and some difference walk out actually leave come back tap on a window from the outside I mean we tried every possible way to get that variety how many Emmys have you won four Columbo you fools husbands is one of the seminal films that forged the way for the torrent we now call the independent film movement where would that whole movement be without the pioneering efforts of John Cassavetes and his astounding stock company of actors John was he was the most fertile man that I've ever met and there wasn't a copycat bone in his body and his pictures they don't come from books and they don't come from a collaborator and they don't come from other pictures John John introduced into film a whole new standard for spontaneity and acting that had never been seen before but not only was the form new John was a true original in watching Cassavetes films one has the impression of non-stop improvisation the idea that John's pictures are improvised as it's not true of a woman under the influence there was no improvisation at all he broke that originally as a play John wasn't writer John wrote every day was life and if John was alive before there was a camera he would have started out as an actor just as he did and then he would start writing plays and then he would have warned the company of actors and they would have gone off and acted in his place so if you improvise in John's pictures it's only because he feels the nature of that scene can handle it when Neil Simon was here we talked about prisoners second Avenue while you were in the prisoner of second Avenue you found a way to fill your days by going somewhere and studying something what was that yeah yes yeah I I walk past the Art Students League in there for some reason I went in there and I opened the door and wow there she was way down her left hip shoulders back what make it with a mic coming down from above and it was a model I understand I'd say that's a hell of a sight I mean the human figure and I knew I said that's where I'm coming every day and I went there every day I got I got addicted to it I really got addicted you draw to this day direction I do I draw to this day yeah and it's it's it's a terrific thing Peters work has been published it is very beautiful what medium do you prefer I I use charcoal charcoal in person sometimes some crayon you know I didn't get married until I was 33 so you want me to go to cover I [Laughter] move very slow a woman under the influence brings another remarkable player into our story the woman who played opposite you tell us these about working with a genius named Jenna probably the most impressive sustained 10-15 minutes of acting on film that I've ever seen was general Ann's descent into madness in woman under the influence what is the influence referred to in the title I think she was under the influence of of everything certainly my mother her mother-in-law me her father all the workmen that I used to bring into the house everybody do you think that he understands what's happening to his wife he didn't know how to cope with her he loved her but it was behind it was too much friend it's the wedding I looked at you hate the guys looking at you like this you don't know what to do this monk you don't know what to do he thinks you mean something you don't know you don't mean it I don't mind you being a little bit thick that woman thick I didn't do anything wrong let's talk about the in-laws now the in-laws the inlaws is an authentic screwball comedy probably the funniest scene in that picture at least Rome a lot of people with serpentine right I mean you walk down the street guys open up the window and yell serpentine we were about to do that see I said to Alan Alan you think this is funny he said to me you're the dumbest actor I know my feeling is that that was an inspired script I was in the jungle the bush we called it for approximately nine months nine months my god that really wasn't something Sheldon it was unbelievable I saw things they have seats he flies down there the size or even really in the evening I would stand in front of my heart watching horror as these giant flies would pick children off the ground and carry him away my god peasants screaming chasing these flies down the road waving phones you can imagine the pathetic quality of this waving these crudely fashioned bones of these enormous flies as they carry their children off to almost certain death you sure these the Flies are talking about finite daggers had a name for them Jose Greco spin we're toast Oh flamenco dancers of death the enormous flies like and slowly away into the sunset small brown babies clutched and defeats pigs flies with pigs Shyam again uh tell me something were you involved in the development of happy new year happy new year I developed happy new year yes I didn't loulou's made a picture called Happy New Year yeah and I I happen to love that picture and so I wanted to make another one and did you add a character to the story yes I did then the study was concerned that the the didn't have enough jazz they wanted something else so I decided that they hired my mother and I would play my mother and I I must say this that one of the joys is going back and looking at sees that that you really liked yes and I can play that scene over and over again the mother the mother tune in tomorrow has distinguished provinces what was it adapted from Mario Vargas Llosa's novel and julia and the scriptwriter what drew you to this this project well when I first got the script I read and I said this is a very colorful very very colorful character there's only one problem I don't know how to play so I passed and they asked me about eight months later the see the director and the director turned out to be Jon Amiel and Jon Amiel directed The Singing Detective yes that was a fabulous piece of work I met Jon I like them very much I told I'm in good hands with him and one thing that he said that made some sense to me the character's name was Pedro Carmichael right and he explained that the Pedro was Mexican and the Carmichael was Irish and that rang a bell about this character had a very flamboyant way of saying thank you and you know the Irish they loved the play with words the Irish odd I'd like to be ironic what do you reach all at that's what I'm talking about the very apex of your art I want to hear your see nose crack and strain I want your souls to enter those microphones any merge by ghosts in the homes of our listeners there's an army of them out there groping blindly toiling in the darkness waiting for what for you for your incandescent brilliant palpitating talent to light up their miserable impoverished dome and worthless lives okay gang take five and then we'll hit it in roommate's you aged from 75 to 107 did you do any special research for this role this is what this character was based on a real person his grandson had written a book called roommates and this was about his grandfather Rocky's a gutsy character a man never probably has never had a moment of self-doubt in his life that's exactly right exactly right I mean he's a guy he came to this country when he was 16 years old he went to night school learned to be a baker and he went to bed at 10:30 and got up at 4:30 and he did that for a hundred years that's unfair papa oh stop calling me suppose we sent you to a home you fat son of a see how you like it be reasonable reasonable breathe and family got nothing to do with one another Michael's six years old he comes to live with you he gets attached and then god forbid in two years for you something that happened to you I could happen anything anything what rocket you're not a young man no more you could get sick you're not gonna live forever stop worrying about me because I'll bury all you would you've listened the child stays conversation over how come you whistles at the funeral no one else did Wow sometimes your hardest broke controversial is your heart broke but it's still beating otherwise I would be peg to I can't whistle well that's he you just take your lips and you make a no-help blow that's good you got talent [Music] [Music] we end our evening with the questionnaire invented by they're not people or his television says we don't delete you Peter what is your favorite word I figured this all out before but I thought but I forgot him say it say what's your favorite word okay what is your you want to translate it you means nothing maybe you got bupkis me what do you got in your hand bupkis I lose nothing nothing's okay it means nothing what is your least favorite word subordination what the hell does it mean what turns you on more than anything in the world it can be anything oh my wife loves me what turned you off a laugh track on a sitcom [Laughter] what sound or noise do you love I like it when an old lady chuckles what sound or noise do you hate the squeal of brakes followed by a crash of steel [Laughter] [Music] and the squeal of brakes followed by a crash of Steel is usually followed by a curse word what's your favorite curse word sucker face [Applause] that word has come up before this is the first time we've had a nice variation on what profession other than yours would you like to attempt I'd like to be a good artist you are a good artist now I'd like to be real life I'm not gonna pursue it further take a look at his art and judge for yourselves what profession would you not like to participate in elevator operator it does have its ups and down [Applause] Peter if Heaven exists what would you like to hear God say when you arrive why'd you pay for those shoes I've waited all evening to say this here one more thing thank you from the bottom of our hearts [Music] [Music] I'm mr. Falk my name is Tom Cavanaugh I'm second year writer mr. Fawlty one of the guys that got to stand under the big w who for a smilers cash he tell us about man-made world and were you part of the off-camera Phil Silvers crop games oh yes yeah I mean for me that of course it was an extraordinary experience because you had every great comic in the whole world right what was in that picture and I'll tell you who it was that knocked them all out of the box when Jonathan winters arrived it was a wonderful script you got the best opening line what was that the cops in this town or a bunch of morons with the pressure on shell next time we're in tijada they make a nice chicken sandwich down there they serve it up on find a hard roll with that beautiful cappuccino with the nice phone woody got pineapple juice orange juice you know a big one brown bag [Laughter] that particular thing wasn't in this grater but we had that one drive I told you our playwrights study acting that's delightful justify hello mr. Falk my name is Dennis lines I'm a first-year actor here you said John Castle vet I wanted you as an actor to respond as yourself which do you feel is a more effective stimulus say putting yourself into an imaginary circumstance or substituting the given circumstance with say an effective memory now the reason I hesitate about that is because what I said I really mean that acting is so personal I'll give you an example where thought precedes behavior thought precedes emotion any one emotion is originally triggered by some thought now the trick is how in a take are you gonna get a fresh thought a new thought a thought that never happened before believe me it's very rare all the years that I've been doing it I could count it on my hand they're very very very rare but I can only say that when you do get a fresh thought during it takes you know that you're acting well if something enters your head that you didn't think of before and in my Kia Niki there was a scene on the bus and I was taking him to his death and what Elaine said to me before with what it take just pick one thing about John and just concentrate on that and I I concentrated on the pause in his skin I just looking at him thinking about that and you know John is high cheekbones and when he laughs there's a devil and I thought it look like I look like a skeleton like a double skeleton and the next fresh thought that I had during that take was that we were in a bus we were in a hearse but I don't want you to feel that these fresh thoughts are gonna come up very often but we need they don't my name is Darrell Steinberg I'm a first year acting student you sounded as you spoke this evening that you've always found the good and the compassion and love in your characters and if I hear you correctly I'm wondering if you ever came up against a character in whom you couldn't find that or would you not would you not do that that's a very good point now let me give you what I think is an example on the television show years ago I had a play a stool pigeon this is a man who made his living by selling information to the police about people he knew or didn't know now what can you write about that character and I thought what would I not like what would tickle me what would I get a kick at and what I would get a kick out of is this guy's image of himself that he's into no he's three he's way ahead of everybody else and he never says anything directly it's always talking in inferences suggestions dope this but that's his image of himself and to play that kind of guy tickles me I don't like him but I do like him delivery because there's something about his delivery that's funny to me [Music] very much it's just a great bunch I can't tell you how long I can't tell you how I I would only expect this kind of welcome to my dreams thank you very very much

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Id: nOcfWlQyL3Q

Length: 45min 7sec (2707 seconds)

Published: Fri May 15 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Donma01]

I have watched this show a lot but had never seen this episode. Thanks for posting it. It was fantastic.