The charming Vito Scotti

One of the more popular Columbo regulars was Vito Scotti.

Born on January 26th, 1918 in San Francisco, CA he was (not surprisingly) of Italian descent and spent some of his early years in Naples, Italy.

Despite never playing a suspect or a victim, Vito was memorable in all 6 of his Columbo appearances.

He made his debut as the Maitre'd in Any Old Port in a Storm, even though he doesn't come on screen until the very end. 

He was back in the very next episode as the master tailor to Nelson Heyward in Candidate for Crime.

He did his best to sell Columbo a funeral plan in Swan Song.

He had particularly notable turn as the charming drunk Thomas Nolan in Negative Reaction.

He was the extremely Italian vintner, Salvatore De Fonte whom Nelson Brenner was writing a speech for in Identity Crisis.

And his final appearance (16 years after his first) was as the bar owner Vito in 1989's Murder, a Self Portrait.

Aside from Columbo he also appeared in the Godfather, Get Shorty, and did many voices for animated characters.

Vito passed away June 5th, 1996, in Woodland Hills, CA.

Learn more

Vito Scotti's page on Wikipedia