Alan Fudge is one of those faces that seems to belong naturally in the Columbo universe: composed, intelligent, slightly formal, and always convincing as somebody with a job, a title, or a reason to be in the room.
On Columbo he turns up three times, and while none of the roles are huge, they’re all very “Alan Fudge” parts. He’s the attorney, the institutional man, the concerned father—basically the kind of polished, adult authority figure who makes Columbo’s rumpled presence look even more disruptive by comparison.
What I like about Fudge here is that he helps build the episode’s publishing-world atmosphere. Greenleaf is theatrical and slippery; Eddie Kane is sweaty and dangerous; David Chase is the polished legal insulation around the whole mess.
Again, it’s a very Fudge-ish part: educated, serious, institutional. In an episode full of theatricality—psychics, magicians, guillotines, government testing, and Anthony Andrews going all-in as Elliott Blake—Fudge gives the story a little bureaucratic ballast. Mr. Harrow helps sell the idea that this strange world of ESP demonstrations and psychic research has official people standing around it, taking notes and asking sober questions.
Mr. Redman is a small role, but it adds something important to the episode. Cooper and Justin are not just arrogant young men; they are arrogant young men from a world of privilege, pressure, and parental damage. Fudge’s presence helps sketch that background quickly. You understand, almost instantly, the kind of family dynamic Cooper comes from: money, expectations, anger, and very little warmth.
He was also one of those actors who seemed to pass through every major TV neighborhood sooner or later: M*A*S*H*, Hawaii Five-O, Lou Grant, The A-Team, Murder, She Wrote, Dynasty, L.A. Law, Magnum, P.I., The Office, and many more. One particularly memorable credit is his guest role in the M*A*S*H* episode “Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?”, playing a wounded officer who believes he is Jesus Christ.
His film work included Airport 1975, Capricorn One, Chapter Two, The Border, Brainstorm, The Natural, Edward Scissorhands, and the Coen brothers’ The Man Who Wasn’t There. In The Natural, he played Robert Redford’s father—apparently without any dialogue, which is somehow a perfect character-actor footnote.
One of the more interesting details about his early life is that he nearly went in a musical direction before acting fully took over. In the early 1960s he was part of a Tucson folk group called The Ash Alley Singers. After that, he moved to New York, joined the APA repertory company, and appeared on Broadway in productions including You Can’t Take It With You, The Cherry Orchard, and Hamlet.
Fudge died in Los Angeles on October 10, 2011, at age 67, after battling lung and liver cancer. He was survived by his wife Kathy, a son, two daughters, and a grandson.
On Columbo he turns up three times, and while none of the roles are huge, they’re all very “Alan Fudge” parts. He’s the attorney, the institutional man, the concerned father—basically the kind of polished, adult authority figure who makes Columbo’s rumpled presence look even more disruptive by comparison.
Publish or Perish
Fudge made his first Columbo appearance in Publish or Perish, the Season 3 episode that brings Jack Cassidy back as a murderer, this time as sleazy publisher Riley Greenleaf. Fudge plays David Chase, Greenleaf’s lawyer.
What I like about Fudge here is that he helps build the episode’s publishing-world atmosphere. Greenleaf is theatrical and slippery; Eddie Kane is sweaty and dangerous; David Chase is the polished legal insulation around the whole mess.
Columbo Goes to the Guillotine
Fifteen years later, Fudge returned in Columbo Goes to the Guillotine, the 1989 ABC comeback episode that reintroduced the Lieutenant after more than a decade away. This time Fudge plays Mr. Harrow, the CIA man trying to recruit fake-psychic Elliott Blake.Again, it’s a very Fudge-ish part: educated, serious, institutional. In an episode full of theatricality—psychics, magicians, guillotines, government testing, and Anthony Andrews going all-in as Elliott Blake—Fudge gives the story a little bureaucratic ballast. Mr. Harrow helps sell the idea that this strange world of ESP demonstrations and psychic research has official people standing around it, taking notes and asking sober questions.
Columbo Goes to College
Fudge’s final Columbo appearance came the following year in Columbo Goes to College, as Mr. Redman, father of Cooper Redman. This is the episode with the two smug criminology students who think they’re clever enough to beat Columbo at his own game. Spoiler: they are not.
Mr. Redman is a small role, but it adds something important to the episode. Cooper and Justin are not just arrogant young men; they are arrogant young men from a world of privilege, pressure, and parental damage. Fudge’s presence helps sketch that background quickly. You understand, almost instantly, the kind of family dynamic Cooper comes from: money, expectations, anger, and very little warmth.
Beyond Columbo
Outside Columbo, Fudge was a very busy television actor for nearly four decades. He had recurring or regular roles on Man from Atlantis, Eischied, Paper Dolls, Bodies of Evidence, and later 7th Heaven, where he played Lou Dalton over a long stretch of the show’s run.He was also one of those actors who seemed to pass through every major TV neighborhood sooner or later: M*A*S*H*, Hawaii Five-O, Lou Grant, The A-Team, Murder, She Wrote, Dynasty, L.A. Law, Magnum, P.I., The Office, and many more. One particularly memorable credit is his guest role in the M*A*S*H* episode “Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?”, playing a wounded officer who believes he is Jesus Christ.
His film work included Airport 1975, Capricorn One, Chapter Two, The Border, Brainstorm, The Natural, Edward Scissorhands, and the Coen brothers’ The Man Who Wasn’t There. In The Natural, he played Robert Redford’s father—apparently without any dialogue, which is somehow a perfect character-actor footnote.
Personal life
Fudge was born February 27, 1944, in Wichita, Kansas, and moved with his family to Tucson, Arizona, when he was five. He later graduated from the University of Arizona as a theater major.One of the more interesting details about his early life is that he nearly went in a musical direction before acting fully took over. In the early 1960s he was part of a Tucson folk group called The Ash Alley Singers. After that, he moved to New York, joined the APA repertory company, and appeared on Broadway in productions including You Can’t Take It With You, The Cherry Orchard, and Hamlet.
Fudge died in Los Angeles on October 10, 2011, at age 67, after battling lung and liver cancer. He was survived by his wife Kathy, a son, two daughters, and a grandson.
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