One unusual ploy he had was to find if there were any art classes in the area employing nude female models.

Source: http://www.crazydaysandnights.net

Reader Blind

This deceased actor suffered a serious physical impairment but despite that starred as an iconic instantly recognizable TV character who was smarter than he looked.

In real life, despite his marriage(s) and his impairment, the actor was an unrepentant skirt chaser and tried to pick up every woman he met. This included approaching women in public, in bus stations, restaurants, walking down the street.

One unusual ploy he had was to find if there were any art classes in the area employing nude female models.

He would then enroll in the class and attempt to pick up the model.

Peter Falk
Columbo

Peter Falk: Sex, Booze, the CIA, Dementia and Columbo

Peter Falk died from Pneumonia aged 83 in 2011

It was a sad final public appearance for the actor who for 35 years had portrayed an equally rumpled and seemingly forgetful yet brilliant TV detective, Columbo.

Falk was in the throes of the Alzheimer’s disease that left his second wife fighting his children in a bitter battle for control of his $100million fortune.

“He didn’t even remember Columbo,” revealed Falk’s doctor, Stephen Read.

The illness robbed the actor of memories of a remarkable life, now captured in a new biography, Beyond Columbo, by Richard Lertzman and William Birnes.

Peter Falk tried to become a CIA spy and rifleman, the book reveals, before reluctantly becoming an actor despite a dismissive warning from his father: “You are going to paint your face and make an ass of yourself all your life.”

His career would include two Oscar nominations and 58 films, yet was overshadowed by his 69 Columbo episodes.

“Falk loved playing Columbo, never feared being stereotyped, and was planning on making more episodes right up to his death,” says Lertzman.

“He had played the forgetful but gifted detective for so long that the two merged together. Peter became Columbo, until Alzheimer’s robbed him of that.”

ALAMY

Peter starred in Columbo in 1971

But while Columbo loved his chewed cigar and Basset hound, Falk pursued far more scandalous vices.

“He drank and smoked incessantly, loved boozing with his friends and was an inveterate womaniser,” says Lertzman.

“He was a negligent husband and an absentee father. Yet he became one of the most iconic stars of his generation.”

Falk romanced college sweetheart Alyce Mayo for 12 years before marrying in 1960, then relentlessly cheated on her.

“He was an incorrigible philanderer,” says Lertzman.

“On every film set he was pursuing other women. Alyce turned a blind eye to his infidelities but it hurt and finally she had enough.”

They divorced in 1976 and the next year Falk married his longtime mistress, actress Shera Danese, 22 years his junior.

Falk had spotted Shera walking in Philadelphia three years earlier, and chased her through the streets begging for a date.

“She wasn’t interested,” Falk recalled. “I kept at it. She conceded to a hello over a cocktail.”

Yet even through his second marriage Falk’s cheating continued, with explosive results.

“They were known across Hollywood as the Fighting Falks, always arguing, breaking up, then reconciling,” says Lertzman.- Source