365 Days of Columbo: July 30th

Happy Birthday Daniel McDonald

Actor Daniel McDonald was born July 30, 1960, in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Columbo fans will remember him as Rudy Strassa, the deeply disturbed kidnapper in the unconventional 1992 episode No Time to Die. Strassa abducts newlywed Melissa Hayes from her hotel room, prompting Columbo, his nephew Andy Parma and a large contingent of police officers to race against time to find her.

McDonald’s role is unusual in several respects. Strassa does not commit a murder, and he never shares a scene—or even a conversation—with Lieutenant Columbo. That makes him unlike virtually every other principal antagonist in the series. 

Outside of Columbo, McDonald worked extensively on stage and television. His screen credits included appearances in Murder, She Wrote, Law & Order, Sex and the City and CSI: Miami. He also performed on Broadway and received a Tony Award nomination for the musical Steel Pier.

McDonald died of brain cancer in 2007. He was only 46.

Remembering Al Beaudine

July 30 also marks the anniversary of the death of character actor and stand-in Al Beaudine, who died in Los Angeles on this date in 2000.

Beaudine made two small, uncredited appearances in Columbo. He played a technician in Mind Over Mayhem and a stagehand in Fade in to Murder. Both parts are easy to overlook, but they placed him inside two of the show’s most distinctive environments: the futuristic research institute operated by Dr. Marshall Cahill and the television studio where William Shatner’s Ward Fowler portrays fictional detective Lucerne.

Beaudine spent much of his career working as an extra and stand-in. According to his IMDb biography, he became a dependable presence on detective programs and later worked regularly as Edward Asner’s stand-in on Lou Grant.