Attire

His trademark outfit of a rumpled raincoat over a suit-and-tie never varies from case to case or year to year—with one exception; when he gets a new raincoat as a birthday gift from his wife in the episode "Now You See Him". Columbo says that he "can't think" in this coat, and desperately tries to lose it. Finally, he is able to retrieve his beloved original raincoat. He sometimes wears his trademark outfit while on vacation. In the episode "Troubled Waters", Columbo takes a Mexican cruise with his wife, and boards the cruise ship in his usual attire. Upon meeting Columbo dressed in the raincoat, the Captain of the ship quips "Oh, tell me Lieutenant, do you expect inclement weather in the Mexican waters?" Later in the film he wears a Hawaiian shirt, during a party. In the final scene of the episode "Forgotten Lady", during a gathering in the episodes "A Case of Immunity" and while attending a banquet during "Murder Under Glass", he wears a tuxedo.

Attitude

Although not socially polished, Columbo is civil, addressing everyone to do with the case as "Sir", "Ma'am" or "Miss". He rarely displays anger toward his prime suspect, though he sometimes becomes frustrated with other characters. In an impromptu speech to a ladies' club meeting hosted by Ruth Gordon's character, at which he shows up uninvited, he admits that over the course of many of his investigations, he grew to like and respect the suspects. The people Columbo interviews during his investigations, especially the suspects, often become irritated with Columbo’s habit of taking an inordinate amount of time to get to his point. This causes the murder suspects to be dismissive of Columbo as he builds his case against them.

Firearms

Columbo rarely carries a gun, and is never shown to exercise much physical force. In some episodes he allows himself to be placed in a predicament in which the killer believes he or she will be able to kill Columbo and escape. In the 1971 episode "Death Lends a Hand", it is revealed that he does not carry a gun when he walks through a metal detector and does not set it off. In the 1975 episode "Forgotten Lady", he explains that he keeps it "downtown", and in other episodes he expresses a strong dislike of guns and their use, as well as an intolerance to the noise produced when firing them. Additionally, in "Troubled Waters", Columbo asks Hayden Danziger (who later would be proven to be the murderer) to shoot a gun since the detective says "I hate guns. Besides, I'm a bad shot. I'm liable to miss". In "Playback", he confirms that he hates guns. Nevertheless, he fires a gun in a box full of sand saying that he has done it before. In "Forgotten Lady", it is also revealed that Columbo has failed to attend his required semi-annual evaluation at the department's firing range in the last ten years, leading him to ask a colleague to take the test for him to avoid being suspended. He does carry a gun for his work in 1992's "No Time to Die"^[7] and 1994's "Undercover"^[8] (even threatening someone with it in the latter), both of which are based on Ed McBain novels.^[7]

Foreign language proficiency

In "Identity Crisis," Columbo clearly speaks fluent Italian, which he demonstrates again later on in "Murder Under Glass" and yet again in "Death Hits The Jackpot" in 1991. But by the time mob boss Vincenzo Fortelli (Rod Steiger) addresses Columbo in Italian in "Strange Bedfellows" (Season 10, 1995) he claims that he neither speaks nor understands the language. When inspecting a chemical formula in "Lovely but Lethal", he claims not to have recognized the writing as Latin, stating that he had "only taken Spanish", some of which he speaks in "A Matter of Honor."

Other

Columbo presents himself as a simple man, easily impressed by the West Coast movers, shakers and celebrities whom the writers love to cast as their villains. He often finds occasion during cases to take advantage of the suspect's social circle (e.g. the cuisine on tap in "Murder Under Glass").

As a distraction tactic, Columbo regularly asks to sit behind the wheel of a suspect's luxury car. He asks suspects who are authors to sign copies of their books, suspects who are actors for their autograph to take home to Mrs. Columbo, his wife, and so on. He has good enough taste to fully appreciate all the fine perks he obtains from his suspects, but he often seems to be (or pretends to be) in awe of their wealthy lifestyles. He sometimes comments on the absurdity of spending thousands of dollars on a bottle of wine or a couch, when he himself lives on an income of $11,000 a year (in the 1970s, the rough equivalent of $50,000 in 2020).

The character possesses an encyclopedic knowledge on some subjects, which he usually hides. He has explained to colleagues that his wife believes there is "something wrong" with him. His other trademark is the ever-present (but not always lit) cigar. More than once he attempts to quit smoking. Columbo has explained that he smokes cigars although his wife wishes he would smoke a pipe, which Columbo refuses to try "because there's too much stuff to carry around." In "Any Old Port in a Storm", he refuses a light, saying his wife made him quit smoking; and, when asked why he then buys such expensive cigars, Columbo says he promised to give up smoking but not his standard of living. His shoe size is referred to as "10 1/2 or 11" in "By Dawn's Early Light".

Columbo appears to be prone to airsickness^[9] and seasickness,^[10] and he cannot swim, though he has been known to row a boat.^[11] In "Dead Weight", when General Hollister (Eddie Albert) comments on Columbo's seasickness by asking why someone with the name "Columbo" would not be at home on a boat, the detective responds, "It must have been another branch of the family". In other episodes, Columbo does claim that his family is descended from Columbus.

He is (or pretends to be) squeamish, and does not like hospitals or autopsies. He finds it distasteful to look at photographs of autopsies while eating ("Dagger of the Mind"). He demonstrates an aversion to viewing surgical procedures and an apparent fear of needles. In "Uneasy Lies the Crown," he expresses a fear of the dentist. In "A Stitch in Crime", Columbo says he "faints" merely by being in a hospital. He claims to be afraid of heights, once remarking to an FAA investigator who offered him a job, "I don't even like being this tall" ("Swan Song", 1974). Columbo claims he is always nervous when he is in the passenger seat rather than driving, and in fact is extremely nervous during certain investigations.

In "A Stitch in Crime", Columbo grumbles throughout the episode about being sleep-deprived and working too hard. (Columbo suffers from severe allergies "every spring", although when we first see him suffering symptoms in this episode, he does not know what they are. He says he will not take allergy medicine because of the side effects.) This is also the one and only time—at least in the NBC decade—Columbo challenges his suspect with physical violence (by slamming a water carafe on Dr. Mayfield's desk with great force before directly accusing Mayfield of murder and attempted murder). The killer, Dr. Mayfield (Leonard Nimoy), had begun sarcastically (and almost uncontrollably) laughing at Columbo's vocal suspicion that Mayfield had murdered a nurse and had attempted the murder of his boss, the head of research at the hospital. It is later revealed that Columbo's outburst was an intentional effort to get Mayfield to lose his composure, since the doctor's unflappable demeanor, and his uncharacteristic response to a later provocation, would in fact be his undoing. In "Double Shock", Columbo is genuinely alarmed and upset by the housekeeper's dislike of him. He confronts her to ask why she must behave in so hostile a fashion; finally, he convinces her that he is simply doing his job.

Columbo's distinctive stare was due to Falk's glass eye in the right eye socket. It remained a mystery for 25 years whether the character had one as well, until 1997's "Columbo: A Trace of Murder", whereupon asking a criminologist to accompany him to interrogate a suspect, he jokes: "That'll be good, you and me together, Pat. Three eyes are better than one..."

In almost every episode of the later ABC series, Columbo is heard whistling the children's song "This Old Man". It often appears as a motif in the musical score and is considered an unofficial title score.^[12] The song was first included when Falk stood around in character, whistling the tune without it being in the script and was later considered so fitting for the character that the series used it in almost every episode.^[13] In "Murder Under Glass", an orchestral version is used for a banquet scene. In the penultimate Columbo film, 2000's "Murder with Too Many Notes", Columbo reveals to a music student (and friend of the murder victim) that his wife always hums "This Old Man" when she is cleaning their house. The movie ends with Columbo asking the student to teach him how to play the song so he can play it for her on her next birthday. This is contradicted by the 1977 episode "Try and Catch Me", in which Columbo can be seen playing the first two lines of "This Old Man" on a piano, which shows that he already knows how to play the song. In many of the first season films, Columbo is revealed to also love classical music and has a high level of knowledge about it.

Columbo frequently mentions his wife. In a number of episodes, the murderer is a celebrity or figure well known to Columbo's wife, and in several Columbo attempts to procure a souvenir for her, or to enlist the celebrity to make a telephone call to her. However, she is never at home.

Columbo also has a habit of receiving police calls on the landline of the witness or suspect's house while he is visiting them.

"Étude in Black" (1972) marked the first appearance of the lieutenant's basset hound, named "Dog". "Dog" came to be an occasional regular character in the films. Columbo considered names like "Fido", "Munch" and "Beethoven" but "[Dog] didn't like any of the ones [Columbo] gave him" and so ultimately, he settled on "Dog".^[14]

In "Sex and the Married Detective", Columbo is put on the spot when he is asked to play the tuba. Reluctantly he agrees, only to demonstrate great proficiency. He subsequently claimed that at school, the tuba was the only instrument left.

In several episodes, Columbo is seen eating a breakfast of a boiled egg, usually while investigating the scene of the crime or even while interviewing a suspect. He generally produces the egg from his raincoat pocket, before seeking a hard surface upon which to break its shell; in "A Stitch in Crime" he uses a piece of evidence found at the murder scene. Columbo is then chided by another officer for allowing the broken egg shell pieces to contaminate murder scene. He prefers to eat the egg salted, stating in "Lovely but Lethal" that he usually carries a shaker of salt in his pocket.

In "Double Exposure", Columbo claims that he is a big fan of western (i.e., cowboy) movies. Columbo's athletic prowess is shown in "Death Lends A Hand" when he drives a golf ball an unexpectedly great distance; and, in "How to Dial a Murder" when he shoots a remarkably good game of pool on the murderer's billiard table.

First name

Columbo's first name is never explicitly mentioned during the series.^[15] The opening credits simply read, "Peter Falk as Columbo". When asked about his first name, Columbo always wryly answers "Lieutenant." In the episode "By Dawn's Early Light", he states that the only person who calls him by his first name is his wife.

In Episode 3, "Dead Weight", Columbo's police badge shows his first name to be Frank.^[16][17] In Episode 60, "No Time to Die", the lieutenant's nephew (played by Thomas Calabro) calls Columbo "Uncle Cosmo". Several sources cite the lieutenant's first name as "Philip" but this was a copyright trap—a deliberately false statement intended to reveal subsequent copyright infringement—conceived by Fred L. Worth for inclusion in his book The Trivia Encyclopedia. This formed basis for his later (unsuccessful) lawsuit against the publishers of the board game Trivial Pursuit for including this "fact" on their game cards.^[18][19][20]

Career

After serving in the United States army during the Korean War ("KP mostly", as he says), Columbo joined the New York City Police Department and was assigned to the 12th precinct. He trained under Sergeant Gilhooley, a genial Irishman who mentored him and taught him a great deal about police work. Columbo reminisces about Gilhooley and mentions him often. Columbo moved to Los Angeles in 1958, at the behest of his cousin Fred who convinced him he'd prefer it to New York. Early in his career, he worked in the L.A.P.D.'s Hollenbeck Division (part of the Central Bureau, covering the communities of Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights and El Sereno).

In Falk's first appearance as Columbo in the 1968 TV-movie, Prescription Murder, the character had the rank of police lieutenant. In Uneasy Lies the Crown released in 1990, Columbo tells a colleague that he has been "on the force" (presumably meaning the LAPD) for 22 years, which would suggest that he began his career on the LAPD as a lieutenant in the homicide department, having never worked as a uniformed officer for that police force. This is contradicted by the 1974 episode Negative Reaction, in which he claims that he has been "on the force" for 15 years already by that time. In Prescription Murder, Columbo speaks of a colleague, Lieutenant Silver, who was supposed to be assigned to the case but was thought to be "too young and inexperienced" compared to Columbo. In mentioning Lt. Silver, Columbo begins a tradition that will return often, of the rejection of lesser officers from his investigations. However, he also often involves younger detectives in his investigations and usually finds some reason to praise them. This in turn allows the other common motif of suspects attempting to have Columbo removed from investigating, because they fear him. Despite solving numerous murders over the next few decades, in Falk's last appearance as Columbo in the 2003 cable-TV movie Columbo Likes the Nightlife, the detective is still a lieutenant.

A very common motif is that Columbo enjoys and lives for his work. He is happy being a lieutenant with the homicide department, and often makes statements about his lack of ambition. He is precisely where he has always wanted to be, and he will remain there. The attempts to remove him from cases never work because Columbo "is something of a legend", and thus has a powerful position with the police force. In fact, in Falk's pilot episode, Prescription Murder, he mentions to a suspected accessory that somebody has attempted to have him removed from the case, but he says:

Just to clear things up on one point, Miss Hudson: I am on the case. Somebody was pulling a few strings, all right. But my superior doesn't like that. Gets him thinking. So he says to me, "Columbo, you must be touching a sore spot somewhere. Keep at it." Very intelligent man, my superior.

Another common motif is Columbo's investigatory tactics with the murderer. Columbo often asks a series of questions which the killer easily answers, or explains, seemingly ending the conversation, only to have Columbo bring up "one more thing" before asking a final question or presenting a scenario that unsettles or stumps. In most episodes, Columbo confronts his suspects at inconvenient times, resulting in their irritation with him. This, combined with his probing questions, exasperates the suspects, who typically try to answer Columbo rather than remaining silent and seeking counsel. This often leads to the suspects either directly, or indirectly, incriminating themselves.

Family

In the course of his investigations, Columbo often discussed details of his personal life, some of which were inconsistent with details given in other episodes. Although some of these inconsistencies may have been genuine continuity errors, it is also possible that the writers intended Columbo to be giving misinformation to suspects in order to steer the conversations in his intended direction.