365 Days of Columbo: February 26th

 Happy Birthday Johnny Cash

Singer-songwriter and occasional actor Johnny Cash was born on February 26, 1932. Columbo fans, of course, know him as gospel star Tommy Brown — and the killer — in Swan Song (1974).

 

Happy Birthday Morris Buchanan

Character actor Morris Buchanan was born on February 26, 1923. He’s not a household name, but he’s the kind of working actor who makes the Columbo universe feel lived-in — the lab guys, the plainclothes detectives, the faces you recognize even when you can’t quite place them.

Buchanan appears in Columbo as the lab man in A Deadly State of Mind (1975), and as a second detective in Old Fashioned Murder (1976).

 

On This Day: Mrs. Columbo premieres

February 26 also marks a notable ‘Columbo adjacent’ milestone: the NBC premiere of Mrs. Columbo on February 26, 1979, with the feature-length opener “Word Games” starring Kate Mulgrew.

Obviously "Mrs. Columbo" is a bit controversial among Columbo fans, Falk took no part in it and it was kind of a cynical network ploy to capitalize on the Columbo brand with few of the Columbo elements.

That said, if you forget any claimed connection to Columbo, it's not bad.

What did I miss? If you know of any other Columbo birthdays, anniversaries, or February 26 milestones, drop them in the comments and I’ll update the post.