Happy Birthday Nina Foch
Nina Foch was born on April 20, 1924. For Columbo fans, that makes today the perfect excuse to remember one of the series’ most important early players: Carol Flemming, the ill-fated wife in Prescription: Murder. Foch’s role is historically significant because she was, in effect, the first true victim in Peter Falk’s televised Columbo universe.
Although Carol Flemming does not get nearly as much screen time as some later victims, Foch brings real weight to the part. She gives Carol a brittle, unhappy edge that helps make the whole setup feel more adult and more psychologically sour than a lot of television mystery fare of the era. In a strange way, that severity helps Prescription: Murder feel like a bridge between a stage thriller and the cooler, more elegant cat-and-mouse world the series would later perfect.
Outside of Columbo, Foch had a distinguished career on film and television, including an Oscar nomination for Executive Suite, and later became a respected acting teacher. But for fans of the Lieutenant, she’ll always have a special place as the woman whose murder helped launch the whole phenomenon.
Happy anniversary Bradford Dillman
Here’s a more sideways bit of April 20 Columbo trivia. Bradford Dillman — remembered by fans as Tony Goodland in The Greenhouse Jungle — married model and actress Suzy Parker on April 20, 1963. It’s not a Columbo event in the strictest sense, but it is a neat calendar footnote involving a memorable guest star. Dillman was very good value in The Greenhouse Jungle, playing the entitled, weak-willed nephew at the center of one of the series’ nastier family conspiracies.
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