The crumpled raincoat-wearing ‘Columbo’ remains one of the most famous and beloved television detectives of the modern era, a character whose knack for solving complex murders never failed to leave audiences utterly captivated. Just when it seemed certain the criminal mastermind would escape justice, the cigar-smoking super sleuth would invariably return, squinting, with the simple, disarming request for “just one more thing”—that one nagging detail that sealed the culprit’s fate.

The original Columbo series dominated prime-time television throughout the 1970s and enjoyed a successful revival that ran intermittently from the late 1980s right up until 2003. Historically, TV detectives were often portrayed as being a cut above the criminal masterminds they pursued, possessing superior sophistication and class. Columbo ingeniously turned that stereotype on its head, presenting a shrewd but scruffy blue-collar homicide detective who consistently outwitted the most influential and wealthy figures in Hollywood and beyond. This much-loved detective, who became a household name around the globe, earned actor Peter Falk a remarkable four Emmy Awards for his definitive work on the show.

Yet, behind the global success and widespread fame of the character, there was a deeply complex man. According to authors Richard Lertzman and William Birnes, who penned the biography Beyond Columbo, the book offers an in-depth look at a life that often clashed with the mild-mannered detective he played: “He drank and smoked incessantly, loved boozing with his friends, and was an inveterate womanizer. He was a negligent husband and an absentee father.”