365 Days of Columbo: December 21st

We have a couple of Columni birthdays to celebrate on December 21st.

Jared Martin

Jared Martin (born December 21, 1941 in Manhattan, NY) turns up in A Stitch in Crime (1973) as Harry Alexander—the recovering drug addict who Dr. Mayfield (Leonard Nimoy) tries to frame for Sharon Martin's murder.

Outside of Columbo, Martin is best known to many viewers as Dusty Farlow on Dallas, but his résumé is packed with classic TV guest spots—exactly the kind of career that makes a date-by-date Columbo calendar such a deep rabbit hole.

He passed away May 24th, 2017.

Steve Zettler

Steve Zettler was born December 21, 1947, and he pops up in the ABC-era revival installment “Columbo Goes to the Guillotine” (first broadcast February 6, 1989) as Lieutenant Bravo.

It's a small role, near the beginning of the episode, where he and two others put on the blindfolds, flip through the map book, and scan a photo of where they end up - as part of the fake test that Elliott and Max put together to convince Mr. Harrow of Elliott's powers.

He's still alive as of this writing; his last acting credit is from 2020.