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AA6 OBITUARIES Woman Under the that he created what former Times film critic Charles Champlincalled of the most complex and contradictory portraits in his Through a spokesman, Rowlands told The Times: we lost someone who was very special and dear to my heart. Not only a wonderful actor but a very great Early in his film career, Falk received two Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor portraying a vicious mob assassin in (1960) and right-hand man in Frank comedy-drama of (1961). on-screen combination of toughness and gentleness prompted Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper to label the native New Yorker James Cagney or John Garfield a man to replace In 1962, Falk won his first of five Emmys as a truck driver who befriends a lonelypregnant girl in Price of a segment of Dick Powell Adecade later, he received raves on Broadway as the frazzled New York advertising account executive in Neil hit comedy Prisoner of Second But nothing Falk did came close to matching the acclaim and popularity he found playing the title role in the crime-drama that brought him four more Em- mys. Launched with two TV movies starring Falk, in 1968 and 1971, the series began in fall 1971 as one of three 90-minute programs that rotated as the Sunday Mystery The others were and starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James, and starring Dennis Weaver. however, became the stand-out show.

a detective on television who can touch him, either in style or one critic wrote of Falk. The role had first been offered to Bing Crosby, who reportedly turned it down because it would have interfered with his golf game. The format of the series, created by Richard Levinson and William Link, inverted the classic detective formula: The TV audience already knew whodunit when Columbo arrived on the scene of the crime. The enjoyment for viewers was in seeing how Columbo doggedly pieced the clues together. As he said in one episode, have this bug about tying up loose The original run ended in 1977, but Falk still appeared in the occasional In 1989, he returned in a new series, which alternated with two other dramas as ABC Mystery After the series ended in 1990, he periodically turned up in TV movies until 2003.

Columbo, who was never given afirst name, became one of the most memorable TV characters in television history and was ranked No. 7 in TV 1999 list of Fifty Greatest Characters With his tousled darkbrown hair, a cheap cigar wedged between his fingers and his lived-in tan raincoat, the likable lieutenant was as unprepossessing as the faded old Peugeot he drove. Indeed, when Columbo brought up clothing and male vanity in one early episode, guest star Suzanne Pleshette pointedly looked at the disheveled detective and remarked: men, lieutenant, do not want to look like an unmade The show often made light of lack of fashion sense. Taking note of the tatty attire, a suspect once asked him, you Replied Right for the job But beyond his rumpled exterior, disarmingly childlike curiosity and seeming disorganization frequently lose his pencil and have to borrow a pen to jot down notes there was no question Columbo was the right man for the job. Head cocked, slightly hunched and his hand occasionally rubbing his furrowed forehead, he missed nothing while making it appear otherwise.

As Columbo headed toward the door, he would stop and, in his gravelly voice, say, just one more Born Sept. 16, 1927, in New York City, Falk grew up in Ossining, N.Y., where his parents owned a clothing store. At age 3, Falk underwent surgery to remove a cancerous right eye. By the time he was a teenager, he realized he could get a laugh with it. When he was unfairly called out at third base during a high school baseball game, Falk is said to have taken out his glass eye and offered it to the need this more than I In high school, he was a three- letter athlete (baseball, basketball and track), a member of the debate team and senior class president.

He first appeared on stage in a summer camp musical and had small parts in high school stage productions. After graduating from high school in 1945, Falk spent a year as a cook in the merchant marine. He attended Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., from 1946 to 1948 and received a degree in political science from the New York School for Social Research in 1951. Two years later, he earned a in public administration from Syracuse University and went to work as an efficiency expert for the Connecticut State Budget Bureau in Hartford. He joined the Mark Twain Maskers, a community theater group in Hartford, and studied with noted actress Eva Le Gallienne at the White Barn Theatre in Westport.

Encouraged by Le Gallienne to become a professional actor at 28, Falk moved to New York City, where he first gained attention playing the bartender in the 1956 Off-Broadway revival of Eugene Iceman starring Jason Robards. On Broadway, he made his de- butin 1956 as the English solider in and appeared on and among other TV shows. After Falk dida screen test for Columbia Pictures in the late studio boss Harry Cohn turned him down, saying, the same money I can get an actor with two But glass eye, which gave him his trademark squint, proved to be no handicap in the wake of his early 1960s Oscar nominations and Emmy award. Offered a number of television series, he accepted Trials of a legal drama that cast him as a talented New York attorney with a less successful personal life. Despite being a critical success, the low-rated show was canceled in 1966 after one season.

Since he had free time in the mornings while appearing on Broadway in the early 1970s, Falk took a drawing class and continued to draw for much of the rest of his life. He particularly enjoyed drawing women, whom he called most fascinating subject known to For Falk, who had played his share of heavies over the years, was a welcome change of pace. shot, knifed and beat people in too many bloody scenes. no fun in doing he told TV Guide in 1972. like to do something optimistic, where the people try to live, not Falk never tired of Columbo.

love he told TV Guide in 2000. eccentric, oblivious to the impression he makes on people. His obsessiveness is hidden by his graciousness. He has a sly sense of humor, is by nature polite and totally devoid of pretension. But God help anyone who commits murder in Los Falk married his first wife, 1960 and they adopted two daughters, Catherine and Jackie.

Ayear after the couple divorced in 1976, he married actress Shera Danese. Catherine Falk had filed for conservatorship of her father in late 2008, contending that she had not been allowed to see him since his hip-replacement surgery earlier that year. She later withdrew a petition to take control of his finances. In 2009, the court allowed his wife to remain in control of his personal care and affairs but ordered that his daughter be allowed to see her father for 30 minutes every other month, a mandate that was in place at the time of his death. survivors include his wife and his two daughters.

dennis.mclellan@latimes.com Times staff writer Valerie J. Nelson contributed to this report. PETER FALK, 1927 2011 Gravel-voiced actor became television icon COMPLEX, CONTRADICTORY Falk played a blue-collar family man trying to deal with his mentally unstable wife (Gena Rowlands, right) in John 1974 film Woman Under the Falk, from Columbia Pictures APRIVATE EYE AGAIN Falk in Cheap He had an on-screen combination of toughness and gentleness. eccentric, oblivious to the impression he makes on Falk, on Lt. Columbo, his most famous character elevision and film music composer Fred Steiner, creator of the bold and gritty theme for the TV se- riesand one of the composers of the Oscar-nominated score for Color has died.

He was 88. Steiner died of natural causes Thursdayat his home in the town of Ajijic in the Mexican state of Jalisco, according to his daughter Wendy Waldman, a singer-songwriter. One of the busiest composers working in Hollywood in the 1950s and Steiner also crafted music for Twilight Gun, Will and other TV series. Steiner said he wanted to create music for Mason, writer Erle Stanley legal-eagle lawyer, that projected two key facets of his personality: suave sophistication and the underlying toughness that allowed him to go head-to-head with the criminals with whom he often came into contact. The piece he came up with, titled Avenue pulsed with the power of the big city and the swagger of a beefy hero played to perfection by actor Raymond Burr.

those days, jazz or in those days, rhythm and blues was the big thing represented the seamier side of Steiner told National Public Radiointerviewer Nina Totenberg in 2002. ask me why a sociological Frederick Steiner was born Feb. 24, 1923, in New York City, the son of violinist, composer and arranger George Steiner. He began playing the piano at 6 and took up the cello at 13. He received a scholarship to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where he studied with composer Normand Lockwood.

His early jobs included composing, arranging and conducting music for New York City-based radio shows in the 1940s, and he was appointed musical director for the ABC radio series Is Your After moving west in 1947, he soon found film and TV work in Hollywood. Among his early assignments for CBS-TV were Against Danny Thomas and Steiner and the other members of thriving musical community got together often, Waldman recalled. remember them all very well, remember them playing chamber music at our house, remember Bernard Herrmann pounding on the piano, Elmer Jerry Goldsmith, Earle Hagen, Henry Mancini, Leonard Rosenman, Nathan Van Cleave, it goes on and she said. In 1958 Steiner moved the family to Mexico City for 2 1 2 years after landing a job as director of an independent record company and was commissioned to create a library of music for Mexican television and government-produced documentaries. was fantastic, really his daughter Jillian Steiner Sandrock told the Albuquerque Journal in 1996.

contributed to my interestin traditional culture. There was poverty, but especially in the rural areas there was the traditional culture, and that was a way those communities stayed knit Steiner returned to Southern California in 1960 and resumed his career in Hollywood. He also continued his studies at UCLA and at USC, where he received a degree in musicology and where he later taught composition. was one of those people who always made my work longtime KUSC-FM host and film music aficionado Jim Svejda said Friday. remember one night when I introduced the Schoenberg Cello Concerto as being a work based on music that Baroque non-entity Georg Matthias The next day, Fred called and proceeded to gently rip me, explaining who Monn was, describing in detail all the wonderful things written, patiently illustrating his importance in the subsequent development of Baroque music, etc.

in mind, Monn is a name that 99.9% of all music lovers have never even Svejda said. then on, I knew I had to watch myself because Fred might be The serious, classical music aspect of life was a counterweight to the lighthearted character of one of his more widely recognized compositions, the jaunty Broadway-style theme he wrote for Bullwinkle a later incarnation of Adventures of Rocky and the charged-up, forthright Dudley Do- Right theme used in the series. Steiner contributed music to more than two dozen episodes of the original TV series, music that resurfaced in Trek: The Motion and, most recently, for Trek New Voyages: Phase He also provided music, although uncredited, for Wars Episode VI: Return of the in 1983. Contrary to the stereotype in Hollywood, Steiner was known for his down-to-earth personality. aprofession often marked with personality conflicts and frayed film historian Tony Thomas wrote in 1991, is notable for his even temper and affable nature.

It is no exaggeration to claim him as one of the best-liked men in the film music In addition to his daughters, Steiner is survived by his wife of 64 years, Shirley; a sister, Kay Gellert; two grandchildren; and two great- grandchildren. randy.lewis@latimes.com FRED STEINER, 1923 2011 Hollywood composer created theme Randy Lewis.