14 DAY TRIAL // An icon of television is no longer with us: Peter Falk, star of the late ‘60s popular television show “Columbo” has passed. The actor was 83 and died peacefully in his bed, surrounded by family, it has emerged.
Falk has been suffering from Alzheimer’s, having been diagnosed with it towards the end of 2007.
This triggered a legal dispute between his daughter and his wife, with each seeking to get full rights over his conservatorship, which was created when it became clear he could no longer manage his own finances.
TMZ has confirmed the actor’s death with a rep for the family. Peter Falk was 83.
“Peter Falk, 83-year-old Academy Award nominee and star of television series, ‘Columbo,’ died peacefully at his Beverly Hills home in the evening of June 23, 2011,” the publicist says.
“Peter Falk is survived by his wife, Shera, of 34 years and two daughters from a previous marriage,” the rep adds.
John Finnegan, who starred with Falk in “Columbo,” has also issued a statement on his passing, saying he was so shocked to hear of it he literally fell down.
“I have known Peter for over 60 years... He was like a brother for me, he kept the food on the table. He was the best, great!” Finnegan tells TMZ.
As we also noted a while back, after it became clear that the actor was no longer able to manage his own finances because of dementia, his daughter Catherine and wife Shera launched into a legal dispute over his estate.
Eventually, Shera was named conservator, a decision Catherine eventually accepted. The judge ruled in favor of Falk’s second wife because he had been estranged from his daughter from many years, even though she claimed to have reconciled at the time she asked to be appointed conservator.
In 2009, when the legal dispute was settled, Peter Falk was under Shera’s care, at the house they had shared for 30 years and which had been redesigned to allow around the clock care.
He had already forgotten he once played the famous detective in “Columbo.”