FREE: Peter Falk autobio JUST ONE MORE THING

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JUST ONE MORE THING: Stories From My Life, Peter Falk, 2006, Carroll and Graf, 281pp, trade softcover

Peter Falk tells how he was in some remote place, in Africa, I think, when he was approached by some local kids who smiled and waved. "Columbo!" they shouted.

Falk talks about his raincoated character as well as other experiences in his life in small chapter, anecdotal form. He spends a couple of the chapters discussing how he came up with the Columbo character, what made Columbo tick, and even Columbo's raincoat and where he got the beat-up old Peugot Columbo drove. Interviewed on the Actor's Studio by James Lipton, he's asked what he would like to hear God say when he arrived in heaven. Falk answered, "How much are those shoes?" a typical Columbo line he first ad-libbed during an early episode.

He also talks about other experiences, often unconnected buut in a rough chronological order, people he worked with, jobs he had, jokes, and more. He tells about the acting insight he got from Orson Welles who was fed his lines just before deliver ing through an earpiece. There was his arrest in Eastern Europe where he and his girlfriend were galivanting. He comments briefly on the skills of the late Patrick (Braveheart, TV's The Prisoner) McGoohan, who was a frequent Columbo guest villain as well as director of some episodes. There's his glee shared with co-star Alan Arkin that the Michael Douglas remake of their classic, The In Laws, tanked at the box office. There are a few chapters about his friend John Cassavetes, the filming of favorite movies including It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Frank Sinatra's call to ask him to be in Robin and the Seven Hoods (where he found to his horror he had to sing!), and much more.

Regrettably, since writing the book, Falk has been stricken with Alzheimer's.

Lightweight book, great subject, plenty of photos, even some sketches that Falk drew including a nice one of Columbo.