365 Days of Columbo: May 10th

Happy Birthday Nancy Walker

Actor, comedian, director, and paper-towel pitchwoman Nancy Walker was born May 10, 1922, in Philadelphia.

Columbo fans know her as one of the episode’s rare “playing herself” cameos in Uneasy Lies the Crown, where Columbo is delighted to identify her during the celebrity poker game. “Wait’ll I tell my wife about this,” he says, which is just about the most Columbo reaction imaginable to running into Nancy Walker at a murder-adjacent card table.

Outside of Columbo, Walker had a terrific career on stage and screen, but TV viewers probably remember her best as Ida Morgenstern on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda, and as Rosie in the Bounty commercials.

She passed away March 25, 1992, at the age of 69.

Remembering Laurence Haddon

Actor Laurence Haddon died May 10, 2013, in Santa Monica, California.

Haddon appeared in Columbo Goes to College as Dean Howard Gillespie, the unfortunate administrator whose campus becomes the playground for one of Columbo’s smuggest pairs of killers. 

Remembering Murray Pollack

Columbo occasional Murray Pollack died May 10, 1979, in Los Angeles.

Pollack was one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-him background players who helped populate the show’s cocktail parties, galleries, clubs, and rich-people gatherings. According to IMDB he has 10 Columbo appearances including Suitable for Framing, Dagger of the Mind, and A Stitch in Crime.