Happy Birthday Norman Lloyd
Born November 8th, 1914, in Jersey City, New Jersey, Norman Lloyd directed Season 1’s Lady in Waiting. Susan Clark plays Beth Chadwick, who shoots her brother and claims she mistook him for a burglar. One of my favorite touches is that Lloyd lets us see Beth rehearse the murder in her head before we see how it actually goes. You can almost hear Columbo asking about the difference.
Outside Columbo, Lloyd played the villain who falls from the Statue of Liberty in Hitchcock’s Saboteur. He went on to direct and produce for Hitchcock’s television series, and later played Dr. Daniel Auschlander on St. Elsewhere. He died in 2021 at the age of 106.
Happy Birthday Matthew Rhys
Matthew Rhys was born November 8th, 1974, in Cardiff, Wales. Columbo fans know him as Justin Price, the nightclub promoter in Columbo Likes the Nightlife. Price has a club to open, a body to hide, and a tabloid photographer who knows too much. His timing was excellent in one respect: the episode aired January 30th, 2003, making him the last murderer to face Peter Falk’s lieutenant.
Rhys went on to win an Emmy as Soviet spy Philip Jennings in The Americans and later took the title role in HBO’s Perry Mason. He’s spent a fair amount of his career on both sides of a criminal investigation.
Behind the Camera with Irving Lippman
Born November 8th, 1906, in Edendale, California, Irving Lippman was the director of photography on Season 6’s Old Fashioned Murder, the one with Joyce Van Patten as the curator of her family’s museum. Lippman got his start as an assistant cameraman on a Fatty Arbuckle silent comedy in 1922 and was still working as a cinematographer on The Love Boat in 1982. He died in 2006, a week after his 100th birthday.
Remembering Clyde McLeod
November 8th also marks the passing of longtime screen extra Clyde McLeod, who died on this date in 2003 at 85. If you’re looking for him on a rewatch, he’s the detective who accompanies Joan Hudson at the end of Prescription: Murder and an exhibition guest in Suitable for Framing. From the police detail to the art crowd, there was usually room for a good extra.
And McLeod may have quietly launched a famous Columbo mannerism - when Joan agrees to give Columbo a statement, Columbo can't find a pencil. McLeod gives him one.
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