365 Days of Columbo: February 2nd

February 2nd doesn’t have a “big” Columbo premiere attached to it, but it’s surprisingly packed with Columbo milestones.

Happy Birthday Cady Huffman

Actress and Broadway powerhouse Cady Huffman was born February 2, 1965. Columbo fans will spot her in the season 13 episode A Trace of Murder, where she appears VERY briefly as the receptionist.

If you know Huffman primarily from theatre (she won a Tony just a few years later for “The Producers”), it’s a fun reminder of how often Columbo’s later movies sprinkled in performers who’d go on to become *very* familiar faces elsewhere.

Happy Birthday Peter Saputo

Peter Saputo was born February 2, 1939. He has a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Columbo connection in the Season 8 episode Sex and the Married Detective (1989), credited as the “Man in Bar.”

Happy Birthday Stanley Z. Cherry

Stanley Z. Cherry was born February 2, 1932. Behind the scenes, he’s credited as a producer on the 1990 Columbo movie Columbo Goes to College.

Remembering Jessie Royce Landis

Jessie Royce Landis passed away on February 2, 1972. For Columbo fans, she’s unforgettable as the disapproving mother Mrs. Chadwick in Season 1’s Lady in Waiting—a performance that adds both class and chill to the Chadwick family’s poisonous atmosphere.

Raise a Glass for Donald Pleasence

Donald Pleasence died on February 2, 1995. On Columbo, he delivered one of the all-time great villain portraits as Adrian Carsini in Any Old Port in a Storm (1973).

Carsini is one of those murderers who’s both monstrous and weirdly sympathetic—an aesthete who loves wine more than people, yet can’t bear the idea of his family name being diluted by mass production. Pleasence plays him with a wounded pride that makes the whole episode feel like a tragedy Columbo is forced to solve.

Farewell John Kerr

John Kerr passed away on February 2, 2013. Columbo fans know him as Colonel Roger Dutton in Dead Weight (1971), the doomed officer.

D. Jack Stubbs

D. Jack Stubbs died on February 2, 1997. His name isn’t one most viewers know, but for the credit-watchers he’s a reminder of how many steady, unflashy professionals it takes to keep a production moving. Stubbs is credited as a unit manager on 1977-era Columbo episodes including Try and Catch Me and Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. MurderCase.

Have I missed any February 2nd Columbo connections? If you know of another birthday, airing, or production milestone tied to this date, drop it in the comments—this series is always better as a group investigation.