The suave Robert Vaughn

Robert Vaughn had the perfect kind of screen presence for a Columbo villain: polished, intelligent, self-assured, and just a little too pleased with himself. By the time he stepped aboard the Sea Palace in 1975, he was already internationally famous as Napoleon Solo on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.. 

Vaughn appeared in the series twice, in consecutive seasons. The first time, he was the murderer. The second time, Columbo—and the audience—were encouraged to think he was the murderer, only for the episode to pull the rug out from under everyone. That makes his two appearances an unusually neat little pair.

In an interesting note - according to my rankings - Vaughn appeared in both one of the three best episodes of the series, and one of the three worst.

Troubled Waters (Season 4)

Vaughn first appears in Troubled Waters as Hayden Danziger, a successful automobile executive taking a cruise to Mexico with his wife, Sylvia. The crux of the plot, is that the ship's singer, Rosanna Wells, is also on board. She is a former lover who has been blackmailing him over their affair.

Danziger is a nearly perfect Robert Vaughn role. He is rich, impeccably controlled and accustomed to being treated as an important man. Vaughn doesn't need to push the arrogance. It is there in the way Danziger talks to the crew, manages the people around him and assumes that a sufficiently clever plan will keep him beyond suspicion.

Vaughn and Peter Falk are terrific together. Danziger's smooth confidence gives Falk plenty to work against, and their scenes have the classic Columbo rhythm: the suspect politely indulges the shabby little detective, then gradually realizes that the questions are not nearly as harmless as they sound.

The episode also benefits from its unusual production. Much of it was filmed aboard an actual cruise ship, giving the story a sense of movement and confinement that a studio set could never quite duplicate. Ben Gazzara directed, and the result is one of the best episodes of the series.

Last Salute to the Commodore (Season 5)

A year later Vaughn returned as Charles Clay in Last Salute to the Commodore, and at first the casting seems almost like a deliberate callback. Charlie is another prosperous, well-groomed man with expensive surroundings and an air of entitlement. He runs the boat-building business owned by his father-in-law, Commodore Otis Swanson, and when the Commodore turns up dead, Charlie looks like exactly the sort of man Columbo has spent years bringing down.

Except this time Vaughn isnot the killer.

That is the episode's big structural trick. Columbo focuses heavily on Charlie, and Charlie has plenty to hide, but before the investigation can settle into the familiar duel between detective and suspect, Charlie himself is murdered. Vaughn goes from apparent Columbo villain to second victim, and the story turns into something much closer to a traditional whodunit.

Beyond Columbo

Of course, Vaughn arrived on Columbo a impressive résumé. His breakthrough film role in The Young Philadelphians earned him an Academy Award nomination for supporting actor. He followed it with The Magnificent Seven, then became a television icon as Napoleon Solo on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. His later film work included Bullitt, The Bridge at Remagen and The Towering Inferno.

He was also more academically accomplished than the average Hollywood star. Vaughn earned a doctorate in communications from the University of Southern California, and his dissertation on the effects of the House Un-American Activities Committee on the entertainment industry was later published as Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting.

His television career remained remarkably durable. He won an Emmy for Washington: Behind Closed Doors, later joined The A-Team as General Hunt Stockwell, and decades after Napoleon Solo found another major series role as veteran con man Albert Stroller in the British drama Hustle.

Personal life

Robert Francis Vaughn was born November 22, 1932, in New York City, into an acting family. He married actress Linda Staab in 1974, and they had two children, Caitlin and Cassidy.

Vaughn continued working well into his later years and died on November 11, 2016, at age 83, after a brief battle with acute leukemia.