365 Days of Columbo: April 29th

Columbo Rocks Out

On April 29, 1991, Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star first aired on ABC. It was the third entry in the long, irregular final “season” of Columbo, directed by Alan J. Levi and written by William Read Woodfield.

 

The killer this time is courtroom shark Hugh Creighton, played by Dabney Coleman, who decides that the best way to handle an inconvenient relationship problem is with drugged champagne, a disguise, a borrowed truck, and a very 1991 speed-camera alibi. The episode also features Shera Danese as Trish Fairbanks, Cheryl Paris as victim Marcy Edwards, Julian Stone as Neddy Malcolm, and — because this is late-period Columbo and anything can happen — Little Richard as himself.

As a bonus for location spotters, the beach house used in the episode was at 30708 Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. David Koenig notes that it remains one of the more accessible Columbo locations, with the public beach running in front of and alongside it.

Happy Birthday Richard Kline

Actor Richard Kline was born April 29, 1944, in New York. Most TV fans know him best as Larry Dallas on Three’s Company, but Columbo fans know him as Louis “Lou” Caton (IMDB calls him "Lou Cates") in Butterfly in Shades of Grey.

 

Lou is the literary agent who wants to help get Victoria's book published. Kline’s role is not the flashiest part of the episode — that honor belongs to William Shatner’s magnificently oily Chase (and his curiously changing moustache) — but he fits neatly into the world of the story, where everyone seems to know that Fielding is impossible and yet everyone has learned to orbit around him anyway.

Happy Birthday Kate Mulgrew

This one...is a bit of a controversial relationship.

Also born on April 29: Kate Mulgrew, in 1955. Before she commanded the starship Voyager as Captain Janeway, Mulgrew was given the impossible assignment of playing Kate Columbo in Mrs. Columbo, the short-lived 1979–80 spin-off built around the Lieutenant’s never-seen wife.

 

Remembering Frank McRae

Actor Frank McRae died on April 29, 2021. In Columbo, he played Lieutenant Robertson in A Bird in the Hand, the 1992 football-themed case starring Tyne Daly and Greg Evigan. 

McRae had a big, unmistakable screen presence and a career that stretched from pro football to films like Licence to Kill, 48 Hrs., Last Action Hero, and Loaded Weapon 1.