Remembering George Coe
Character actor George Coe died on July 18, 2015, after a long illness. He was 86.
Coe appeared in the 1989 Columbo episode Murder, a Self Portrait, playing psychologist Dr. Sydney Hammer. Hammer is treating Louise Barsini, the former wife of celebrated artist Max Barsini, and has also become romantically involved with her.
It is a relatively small role, but an important one. Louise’s decision to leave Barsini and begin a new life with Hammer threatens the carefully controlled domestic arrangement the painter has built around himself. Coe gives Hammer an understated intelligence and decency, providing a contrast with Barsini’s vanity and possessiveness.
Coe had an unusually varied career. He was associated with the original cast of Saturday Night Live, appeared in the original Broadway production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company, and later accumulated extensive television, film and voice-acting credits. He also spent many years as an active member of the Screen Actors Guild and received the union’s Ralph Morgan Award for service.
Among his later roles, he became particularly familiar to television audiences as Senator Howard Stackhouse on The West Wing and as the voice of Woodhouse on Archer. Yet for Columbo viewers, he will always have a place in the unusual seaside world of Murder, a Self Portrait.
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