William Shatner

William Shatner is hardly the sort of actor who disappears into the wallpaper. By the time he first faced Peter Falk, he was already permanently identified with Captain James T. Kirk, and he brought that unmistakable confidence, theatricality and restless energy to Columbo twice. The fun is that the two murderers could scarcely be more different: one is an actor hiding behind a television persona, while the other is a domineering broadcaster who treats everyone around him as part of his personal production.

Both performances are unmistakably Shatner, but neither is simply Captain Kirk with a murder weapon.

Fade in to Murder (Season 6)

Shatner made his first Columbo appearance in Fade in to Murder as Ward Fowler, the star of the hit television detective series Detective Lucerne. Fowler murders his producer and former lover, Claire Daley, after years of blackmail over a secret from his past. 

Columbo stumbles into Lucerne's scene

Fowler is vain, intelligent and wonderfully performative. He studies Columbo almost as if the Lieutenant were a scene partner, sometimes amused by him and sometimes irritated that the shabby little detective refuses to follow the script. Shatner leans into Fowler's actorly habits without turning him into a complete cartoon. The grand gestures and carefully controlled voice belong to a man who has spent so long performing for other people that he no longer seems entirely sure where Ward Fowler ends and Detective Lucerne begins.

Shatner is at his best when Fowler's confidence starts to crack. The character can handle suspicion, but he cannot stand being denied control of the scene. By the conclusion, his need to explain, perform and outthink Columbo has become every bit as dangerous as the physical evidence.

Butterfly in Shades of Grey (Season 12)

Eighteen years later, Shatner returned as Fielding Chase, a nationally known radio host with a booming voice, a polished public image and an obsessive need to control his adopted daughter, Victoria. When Gerry Winters threatens that control, Chase kills him and attempts to direct the investigation from a distance.

Fielding Chase is a much colder figure than Ward Fowler. Fowler performs because performance is his profession and perhaps his refuge; Chase performs because he believes he has the right to define reality for everyone else. He dominates conversations, monitors Victoria's life and treats disagreement as disloyalty. Shatner's forceful delivery is ideal for a man who has spent years being rewarded for never sounding uncertain.

One of the unfortunately defining features of this episode is Chase's ever-changing moustache, which seems to change shape and color with every scene. I sometimes jokingly refer to this one as "Moustaches in Shades of Brown". In an interview years later Shatner himself laughed about the moustache, which he admitted was fake. He apparently hadn't realized how different it looked on camera from scene to scene.

Of Shatner's two murderers, Fowler is probably the more layered creation, but Chase may be the more satisfying man to watch Columbo defeat. 

Beyond Columbo

Of course, Shatner's place in television history was secure long before either appearance. Born in Montreal on March 22, 1931, he became a cultural icon as Captain James T. Kirk in Star Trek. He later led T.J. Hooker, hosted Rescue 911, built a parallel career as an author and recording artist, and found another signature role as attorney Denny Crane on The Practice and Boston Legal.

The Denny Crane role brought Shatner two Primetime Emmy Awards: one for his guest appearance on The Practice in 2004 and another for supporting actor on Boston Legal in 2005. He was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2006. In 2021, his long association with fictional space travel gained an extraordinary real-life footnote when he flew aboard Blue Origin's NS-18 mission.

Personal life

Off screen, he has been married four times: to Gloria Rand, with whom he had three daughters, Leslie, Lisabeth and Melanie; to Marcy Lafferty; to Nerine Kidd, whose death in 1999 was a profound personal tragedy; and to Elizabeth Martin, a horse trainer whose shared interest in horses became an important part of Shatner's later life.