365 Days of Columbo: June 12th

Happy Birthday Ben Frommer

Character actor Ben Frommer was born on June 12, 1913, in Poland, and died on May 9, 1992, in Tarzana, California. His screen career stretched across decades, with credits including Plan 9 from Outer Space, Scarface, Psycho II, and, happily for us, several appearances in Columbo.

He appears in The Most Crucial Game as a photographer, the 1972 Robert Culp episode set around the high-pressure world of professional football. IMDb lists the episode’s original air date as November 5, 1972, and credits Frommer (circled in green) as the photographer.

Frommer in green

He also turns up in A Friend in Deed as a bartender. That 1974 episode, directed by Ben Gazzara, is one of the series’ darkest and most corrupt outings, with Richard Kiley’s Deputy Commissioner Mark Halperin trying to use his own police authority to shield himself from murder. Frommer’s credited role is small, but the barroom atmosphere is part of the episode’s grimy, late-night Los Angeles texture.

Frommer’s most memorable Columbo bit may be in Identity Crisis, where he plays Arthur, the hot dog vendor at Pike’s Long Beach amusement park. The Columbo Wiki identifies Arthur as the hot dog stand operator visited by Columbo while the Lieutenant is puzzling over the A.J. Henderson case.

And just to round things out, Frommer also appears in A Case of Immunity as a cook. IMDb’s full credits list him in that role, while episode guides date “A Case of Immunity” to October 12, 1975.